Death Approaches
by BoOkWoRm88424
Summary: Albus Potter is starting his second year at Hogwarts expecting life to be uneventful. Something dark is happening though,and Albus has found himself in the middle of it all. Read and Review.
1. Chapter 1 Quidditch and Babys

A/N Alright so I have finally figured out a plot to continue Albus' years at Hogwarts. I've decided to call this my main story and my first fanfic, The First Year, will be the prequel. Reading the prequel is not necissary in understanding the plot of this story. Anywho, hope you like it.

p.s. Neville is the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher not the Herbology teacher

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter

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><p>Albus Severus Potter narrowed his eyes as he sat with his legs crossed staring at the chess board.<p>

"Knight to E3," he declared after a moment.

His cousin, Rose, sat across from him. When he announced the move she grinned "Queen to C7. Check mate. I win," she cried happily. Her bright red curls seemed to bounce in delight as she declared her victory.

Albus groaned and ran his hand through his unruly black hair, "That's not fair," he whined. This was his fourth game in a row that he lost. Personally, there were a milion other things he would rather be doing at the moment than losing to Rose. Unfortunately the whole family was over at the burrow, so there wasn't anything better to be doing at the moment.

Louis, another cousin, snorted loudly from the table where he was sitting, "Give it up Al," he jeered.

Albus frowned at Louis. "I'm not that bad," he replied indignantly.

"Yes you are mate," Louis shot back.

"It's not that you're a bad player, its that you're playing Rosie," Lysander explained thoughtfully. Lysander wasn't exactly related to Albus, but when he had the whole family over it always seemed to include the Scamander family. Usually Lorcan and Lysander would hang out with James, Albus's brother, and Fred, yet another cousin, but Lysander was a sucker for a good chess game.

"I honestly don't know why you even try," Louis said. He didn't usually hang out with Albus and Rose either. He was normally with Molly. She was hitting her teenage years though, and that meant getting her bueaty rest. She wouldn't be up until noon which left poor Louis with little to do.

Rose grinned," Come on he's not that bad," she murmured. Albus noted how quitely she said it. Obvioiusly she didn't believe what she was saying too strongly.

Louis was about to protest but he was interupted. There was a thudding noise as someone ran down the stairs, "Fire in the hole," shouted a voice that could only belong to James.

There was a muffled popping sound as the lanky third year flew through the room his brown hair looking slightly singed. Following closely behind him stumbled Fred and Lorcan.

"Come on," Fred yelled grabbing Lysander by the collar. His intention in this was to pull him out the door into the yard with the other three. Lysander wasn't known to be coordinated though, and thus all Fred succeded in doing was knocking his friend off his chair and onto the floor. Fred let out a choked laugh as he helped his friend up from the ground in a hurried fashion.

"What did you two do?" Albus asked worried. James and Lorcan glanced at each other with two goofy knowing grins before fleeing from the room laughing all the way.

"SOMEONE IS GOING TO DIE," a voice screached furiously. There was a stomping noise as Molly stomped down the stairs. Her fashionable silk pajamas were completly covered in some kind of black soot.

"WHO?" she cried. No one answered her instead her eyes fell onto Fred and Lysander. Molly's steely gaze cut into them suspiciously. Perhaps they would have gotten away with it. There wasn't any evidence to incriminate them afterall. Then Fren let out a squeak of laughter giving them away.

"Run," he cried, stumbling towards the door. He never made it outside though. Instead he ran right into Neville Longbottom. The Defense teacher was standing just outside the front door, which James and Lorcan had left ajar when they ran out.

"Sorry," Fred mumbled.

Neville seemed to accept it as he was pretending nothing happened "Hi Fred. Are your parents here," Neville asked peering around. Albus waved to his professor from his seat. Neville smiled at him and looked up towards the stairs.

Molly let out a squeal, "Hi Professor." She said before running back into her room embaressed.

Louis laughed," It is entirely unfair that you guys get away with everything."

Lysander frowned," Its entirely unfair that I get pulled into your antics every time. Even when I don't do anything you guys manage to get me in trouble."

Rose rolled her eyes," You can come in Professor." She told Neville. He smiled and walked into the house with his wife, Hannah. At that moment Uncle Charlie walked in. His eyelids were drooping slightly and his chin was rough with a heavy after shave.

"Hey Neville, Hannah," he said after letting out a big yawn. "What's new?"

Neville exchanged a knowing look with his wife as they both just grinned rather than answering Neville's question. Something was deffinately up with them.

"Nothing," Hannah replied. Albus brought his eyebrows together it certainly didn't sound like nothing. He looked at Rose who just shrugged.

Charlie glanced at them with tired eyes before turning," Hey Ron, Ginny, Neville and Hannah are here," he yelled. Albus smiled, his Uncle Charlie didn't have the patience to be the only other adult in the room with a secretive married couple.

In another minute Ginny, Al's mom was down the stairs, exchanging greetings with Neville and Hannah.

"Where's my dad?" Rose asked when Uncle Ron didn't arrive.

Ginny looked over at her niece and pursed her lips, "Working, they both are."

Neville's mood seemed to vanish momentarily, "Another one?"

"I wouldn't know. They left without telling me," she replied agitated. Albus frowned not knowing what they were talking about. He glanced over at Rose. Here eyebrows were drawn as she stared absently at the chess board.

When she caught his eye she stood up, "Come on Al, I need to practice my flying so I can make chaser," she said dragging him out the door.

When they were out of ear shot she started explaining herself, "The aurors office has been really busy lately," she started, "People have been disappearing, its got my dad really worried."

"Why isn't it in the papers and stuff?" Albus asked, "I mean I haven't heard anything about this yet."

Rose sighed, "Yes you have. Last night when we were playing our third game, your dad was talking to mine about it."

Albus thought back to the night before. He did veaguly remember his dad and Uncle Ron whispering to each other about something, "Oh," he mumbled.

Rose rolled her eyes at him, "Really Al your attention span is smaller than Hugo's."

"Is not," Albus retorted, "I was busy with the chess game. Not everyone can both play chess and eavesdrop at the same time."

"I had my entire game planned out when they were talking," Rose informed him, "I needed something to do while you tried to figure out what you were doing."

Albus glared at her, "No need to brag," he mumbled. He and Rose reached the shed that had all the brooms in it.

"Catch," Rose said throwing a broom at him. Albus ducked under it letting it clatter to the ground.

"I'm not helping you fly. Are you kidding me?" Albus cried exasperated.

"Someone needs to play keeper," Rose said trying not to laugh at him. Albus was the one Weasley who seemed to have no flying ability what so ever. His father was an amazing seeker, his mom a professional chaser, his uncle Ron was a keeper, and Fred and Uncle George were both beaters. That was only to list a few. The entire family was like an army of quidditch Albus had broken a bone or two, just attempting to get off the ground. It was questionable he could reach the top of the goal post, let alone actually guard it.

"Go get anyone else than," Albus shouted unhappily.

Rose frowned," You agreed to this you know."

"No I didn't," he denied automatically.

"I told you I needed to help me practice and you followed," Rose explained her chocolate brown eyes light with amusement.

Albus shook his head," I thought that was just an excuse so that we could get out of the house."

Rose rolled her eyes and shoved the broom into Albus' arms. "Your helping me" She demanded. Albus groaned loudly to be sure she heard his extreme disapproval. When Rose had decided something, there was no point in argueing.

The two walked over to the center of the pitch and Rose immediately took off flying through the air, fast paced until she was about the height of the highest goal post. Albus hesitated a moment before gripping the broom tightly in his sweaty palms. He closed his eyes, _one two three_. He pushed off the ground and felt the broom jolt upwards. He didn't feel the ground leave though, rather it became closer. When he decided it was safe to look he saw the broom he was on speeding upward. He was lying flat on his back staring up at Rose who was laughing hysterically.

"She does this on purpose," Albus mumbled to himself. Rose chased after the broom retrieving it before coming back to the ground to help Albus.

"Your flinching away from the broom when you take off," she explained, "Lean into it when you go up." Albus sighed, Rose seemed to think that with proper coaching Albus could be good enough make the Slytherin team by fifth year. It was the only unreasonably absurd thing that had ever passed through her head.

"Albus?" a voice called from behind him. Albus sat up to see his father striding towards them. He was wearing a neat black robes with a badge displayed on the right side of his chest. Clearly he had just come from the auror office

"Hey dad thought you were at work," Albus said.

"I wasn't doing anything there. I thought I might as well come back home. Your mom is probably mad at me," Harry replied bitterly. Albus bit his lip. His dad usually wasn't so solemn. Something bad must have happened.

Albus glanced at Rose who was holding both brooms in her hands impatiently.

"Um well Mom's inside with Neville and Hannah," Albus said, "Come on I'll show you." He glanced back over his shoulder at Rose. She was glaring at him. Hah, he thought, I got away.

When he walked back into the house he found his mom chatting excitedly with Hannah as Uncle Charlie talked uncomfortably with Neville. Albus smilled to himself, his uncle wasn't a mourning person. The man looked like he was going to kill himself as he was forced to be social so early. There was a reason he lived alone in Romania, and the longest romantic relationship he had was about a week long.

"Harry," Ginny cried excitedly as he walked in, "Hannah is pregnant."

"That's great," Harry replied half-heartedly. He exchanged looks with Neville. It wasn't that he wasn't happy for his friends, because he really was.

"That bad?" Neville asked sympathetically.

"Fourth disappearance this week," Harry said deflated, "There was some blood in his room and we are all just sitting around speculating on what might have happened." His father sounded angry. Albus found a seat in the corner where he could listen without being too obvious.

"If you guys need anything," Neville started.

"No," Harry said quickly, "It won't make any difference, just one more person to add to our theories. Whoever is behind this was smart; they didn't leave any trace of evidence. Anyway I couldn't pull you away from Hannah right now. When are you due?"

Albus recognized the dismissal that was his dad's way of saying he didn't want to talk about it anymore. Soon the four were talking about the upcoming baby, any thoughts about disappearances behind them.

Albus didn't forget though, instead he ran up to his room and started writing hurriedly on a piece of parchment. If he went to Rose with this she would say that it was up to their parents to figure it out. Scorpius though might actually show some interest in discussing the issue.

He handed the letter to his snowy white owl, "You know where to go," he told her. He would have a lot to talk about with his best friend on the train next week.


	2. Chapter 2 Train Ride Duels

Albus turned towards his parents and sister to say goodbye. A year ago he was standing in this very spot telling them he wouldn't be in Slytherin. Funny how things turn out.

"Now you two make sure you stay out of trouble," Albus' mother told him and James.

"Cause I'm known for that," Albus said sarcastically.

James snorted next to him," No you're known for near death situations. I'm pretty sure that's what she means, don't get yourself killed. I mean that sums up about any trouble the two of us will ever end up in," James replied giving him an angelic smile.

Lily groaned," James just go get on the train all ready."

James clicked his tongue," Come on its just one more year Lily. No need to turn rotten on me. This is the last time we're going to see each other until Christmas, shouldn't you be worshiping me or something," he asked lightly.

Albus rolled his eyes at his siblings and scanned to crowd for Scorpious. It only took him a moment to spot his best friend.

"Bye mom. Bye Dad," Albus called quickly before rushing over to join Scorpious who was saying farewell to his own family.

"Hey Scorpious," Albus said once he reached them.

Scorpious smiled, "Sup Al?"

Albus shrugged and looked up at the two adults who were staring at him. "Hi Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy, I'm Albus."

Mrs. Malfoy smiled at him and opened her mouth to say something. Her husband beat her to it, "We are quite aware of who you are," the man said curtly.

"Draco," Mrs. Malfoy warned. He mumbled something unintelligent as his wife glared at him.

"Bye mom," Scorpious said quickly before the two boys headed onto the train.

"Sorry," Scorpious said once they were out of ear shot.

Albus shrugged, "Its cool, so you get my letter?"

"Yeah. I don't really know what to tell you though I mean, it sounds like something is wrong," Scorpious said thoughtfully, "It can't be too bad because they didn't publish anything in the profit about it"

Albus frowned, "You don't find that weird. I mean usually something would be published asking for information about what happened."

"I don't know. You said your dad was really worked up about it right?" Scorpious asked.

"I've never seen him so bad," Albus told him.

"Albus," a high pitched voice came from behind him. Albus turned just intime to see Rose running down the hallway towards them.

"Hey I didn't see you on the plat-" she started. When she saw Scorpious she paused," Oh, you're with him."

"We were just fine before you got here Weasley," Scorpious sneered.

Rose pretended not to hear him and addressed Albus," Your dad said you forgot this," she said handing him a box. Albus took it and looked at it curiously.

"You sure," Albus asked, he had never seen this box before in his life. Rose nodded.

"You never know with Weasley, she is a little dense," Scorpious muttered under his breath.

Of course she heard him though. He had just made the wrong person very very mad. "Really Malfoy, I thought you would have gotten over it by now. It's not my fault I beat you in the duel, you are just incompetent," she snapped coldly.

"Um guys I think we should find a compartment," Albus said trying to break them up.

"I got over that ages ago. I mean it wasn't my fault your hair blinded me. I was too preoccupied with ridding everyone from that eye sore to actually focus on beating you. Obviously my effort was wasted, it has grown back like a weed," Scorpious spat back.

"The train is pulling out guys we should go wave good bye to our parents," Albus said desperately.

Again he was ignored, "Aww that's so unfortunate, not only has he got less magical talent than a two year old, but he is blind too. Perhaps that is why your aim is so bad."

"Hey look there is the trawly we should get out of its way," Albus said. He was pleading now, it wasn't going to be long before…

To late, Scorpious' wand was out of his pocket and pointed dangerously at Rose's head. "Engorgio Skullus" he called.

Rose was hit square in the face and soon her head was swelling to twice its normal size.

Scorpious laughed, "Look now your head is the same size as your ego."

Rose shrieked and struck back with her own spell,"Eleaures" she retorted furious.

This spell landed on target, as the space was too small to allow much of a reaction time. Within a moment Scorpious' ears were growing bigger and starting to resemble those of an elephant.

"Perhaps now you'll be able to listen in class. Something has a chance to penetrate your very large dense head," Rose sneered. Her face was turning a bright red color the way it did when she was really mad.

"My head is the dense one?" Scorpious asked incredulously. Both reared back to cast another spell now. Albus looked back and forth between his two best friends. He needed them to stop, now.

"Locomoter Wibbly"

"Anteoculatia"

Albus did the only reasonable thing anyone in his situation could do; he jumped in between the two. He felt himself hit the floor and a faint pain in the top of his head. Two figures croutched above him, blurry. He must have dropped his glasses somewhere. The pain in his head got worse suddenly and everything above him went black.

"Albus?" a voice asked. Albus opened his eyes to see Rose's normal sized head.

"Where are my glasses," He asked. Rose's blurry figure handed him them to him, making the world crystal clear again. He was sitting in a compartment with four other people in it.

"Hey Daniel, Cato," Albus said. The Daniel Higgs and Cato Nott nodded at him, keeping silent.

"Hey I'm really sorry Al," Scorpious, the fourth and final person said.

"I'm sorry too," Rose said quickly.

"Are we friends now?" Albus asked hopefully.

Scorpious glared at Rose, answering Albus' question, "Weasley wouldn't leave," he said unhappily.

Rose stood up," Yes and I don't think I can stand being in here anymore. See you around Al." With that she exited the room.

Once she was out of the room both Daniel and Cato let out a sigh of relieve.

"You two aren't really scared of her?" Albus asked amused.

"Why would we be scared of a blood traiter," Cato retorted.

Albus glared at him and was about to say something back when Scorpious interrupted, "Whats in the box Al?"

Albus glanced at the box sitting next to him. It looked like something someone would rap a Christmas present in. He reached over and placed the thing in his lap.

"Let's find out," he said curiously. He lifted the lid to reveal some type of special fabric.

"What is it?" Daniel asked.

Albus picked it up; it unfolded down to the floor. Whatever it was it was taller than him.

"It's a cloak," Scorpious supplied. Albus nodded and held it up so that his friend and Daniel and Cato could see.

"Well put it on," Cato sat out obnoxiously.

Albus pulled the cloak around his shoulders and looked up at his friends, "Its really big on me, but how do I look."

The other three boys were staring at Albus wide eyed. "Albus, you're missing your feet," Daniel finally sputtered out. Albus looked down and jumped. Where he should have seen his body he saw the seat. He jumped a little, startled, and the cloak fell from his shoulders. As it fell his body became visible once again.

"Its an invisibility cloak," Scorpious exclaimed.

"Cool," Albus said with a grin.

"There's a letter in the box Al," Scorpious said handing him a piece of paper that had fallen to the floor.

Albus took it and read it aloud,

"Albus, I used to use this cloak when I was at Hogwarts. I haven't found many uses for it though now that I left. I thought you might find some use for it. Don't tell your mother I gave you this, she'll kill me."

It wasn't signed but it was pretty obvious who gave it to him. Albus smiled to himself.

"We're here," Cato declared after another moment. Albus looked out the window of the train. The massive castle protruded into the sky on the horizon.

_Hogwarts_, he thought to himself. Finally, he had come home.


	3. Chapter 3 Singing Hats

A/N Alright so I got some reviews asking about Albus getting the cloak and I don't plan on answering them in the story so I'm answering them here. The way I look at it is that Harry wouldn't give one kid all of his heirlooms. He would give each kid one of them. James got the map, though Albus doesn't know about it, so then Albus got the cloak. Lily gets the dress that Ginny wore to Yule ball (not as cool as the map or cloak, but its all I could think of so...). Anywho short chapter here but it is really important to my plot. Hope you like it

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><p>Albus sat down next to Scorpius at the Slytherin table. The feast had yet to start but from the looks of it the sorting would be starting soon. Across from them sat Daniel and Aphrodite Pusey. Cato had disappeared a few minutes ago to go tell Ivan Weston about his vacation.<p>

Albus looked over at the Gryffindor table where the rest of his family (with the exception of Rose and Molly) was sitting. It had been a year now since he had been sorted into Slytherin, and surprisingly enough, he wouldn't have changed it if he could've.

"I'll bet my Snape card on us getting thirty," Higgs said analyzing the room.

Scorpius' mouth twisted into a wide grin, "You're on. I say we get forty, the year coming in is supposed to be big. I'll even put my Merlin on it."

Albus thought for a second," I guess I'll put it in at thirty five, I'll put Uncle Ron's card on it."

"You sound very enthusiastic on," Scorpius said sarcastically.

"That's cause I probably just lost my chocolate frog card," Albus said, "I can't pass up a chance at Merlin though, only three hundred of them ever made."

At that moment the two big doors swung open and Neville led the sorting hat down the isle. It's voice rang though the Great Hall as the hat sang its annual song.

"Perhaps Perhaps you have heard,

Of a time of darkness from whence things stirred

Monsters and demons and wizards alike

Have all come forth, and with vengeance, they strike

Yet evil has tried and evil has failed

For heroes from Hogwarts have always hailed

Merlin of Slytherin of King Arthurs Court

Has defeated more monsters than any can report

Bridget Wenlock once dressed in yellow

Her discovery of the powerful seven saved a really unfortunate fellow

Ravenclaw is proud of its very own Ignatia Wildsmith

Inventor of flew powder yes, but the dragon she slayed wasn't a myth.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore sported bravery in his day.

Our old headmaster once kept the evilest of evils at bay

Now all eyes are peeled for who will be next

Dark times come again though they seem to have just left

You know not now of forces that are starting to encroach

For Death himself has started to approach"

The hat fell silent now leaving the entire room to gawk at the final sentences of its song. McGonnagall was the only one in the room who seemed to still have the ability of coherent thought. A moment after the hat had stopped singing she cleared her throat. This simple movement seemed to unfreeze Neville and who turned to the first years.

"Stacey Applebottem" he called proceeding with the ceremony.

The hat seemed oblivious to the fact that he just shocked the entire school. It waited expectantly proceeding to sort the students as it was supposed to.

"Hufflepuff," it announced. The girl walked over to the table. The table clapped for her, but it wasn't with the same enthusiasm one might expect.

"What was that about?" Albus whispered to Scorpious as first years started to make their way to their newly chosen houses.

"How many dissappearences did you say your father was dealing with?" Scorpius asked in a worry rich voice.

"Four over the past week," Albus replied.

"Did he elaborate?" Scorpius shot back, "Like were there more before that?"

Albus shrugged," He's been at work a lot all summer things could've been going on like this for a long time now."

"That's bad," Scorpius mumbled.

"None of its in the profit," Albus said, "That might have been their way of warning us."

Scorpius shook his head, "The minister wouldn't sensor the profit though. It was one of the things he promised everyone when he got promoted."

Albus shrugged and glanced back up at the chair. Currently a young girl with silver hair sat in the chair. She looked around the room dazed, but not at all uncomfortable.

"Slytherin," the house called. Everyone clapped politely as the girl came over to sit at their table.

"Hey Al," Scorpius said grabbing his friends attention.

"Yeah"

"This year you're bringing me with you when you go looking into all of this kay," Scorpius said.

Albus grinned at his best friend," What would make you think I would go try and get myself killed by myself," Albus retorted sarcastically.

Scorpius grinned back, "Nothing in particular."

From the front of the room McGonagall clapped her hands twice announcing the start of the feast.

Scorpius rubbed his hands together and turned over to an unhappy Daniel Higgs.

"Well boys we got forty one," he said speaking business, "Pay up."


	4. Chapter 4 New Teachers

Albus rolled out of bed, groggier than usual. He squinted around the room wondering briefly where he was before remembering school was back in session.

"Hey you're up," he heard someone say happily. Albus pushed his glasses onto his nose and looked over to see Scorpius lounging on his bed half way through the transfigurations text book.

"What time is it?" Albus moaned.

"Time for breakfast," Scorpius answered hopping out of bed energetically. Albus mumbled something unintelligent before following Scorpius out the door towards the great hall. It only took a second of walking through the corridors to put Albus in a slightly more social mood.

"What were you doing up so early?" Albus asked happily

"I was trying to get through the transfigurations text book," Scorpius explained, " I didn't get the chance to get through all of them over break. I have to get caught up now, you know Weasley has probably gotten through all of them by now."

Albus rolled his eyes, "Yes because god forbid you get behind on work that won't be assigned for months."

Scorpius nodded quickly, "Exactly," he responded in all seriousness.

It was at this point that the two boys were interrupted by a bald man whose waist band was bigger than some small planets. He looked up with delight when he came upon the two.

"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Potter, how good to see you two again," Professor Slughorn cried. Albus plastered a smile onto his face. It wasn't that he didn't like the professor; it was simply that when every teacher knows your dad their constant friendliness gets old after a while.

Scorpius on the other hand loved being on teacher's good side. His face turned easily into a natural grin as the professor approached, "Hi Professor, how was your summer?" he asked politely.

Slughorn smiled, "It was the usual. Actually I was wondering if you could do me a favor Mr. Malfoy."

"Of course," Scorpius said eagerly. Albus narrowed his eyes slightly. Suck up.

"Yes well, I need someone to peel some yarbunt nuts. I would do it myself but I have to teach a group of first years," he said. Albus felt a small bit of relief flood through him. He was lucky that Scorpius was smarter than him, otherwise he might have been stuck peeling those tiny brown things instead of eating a nice breakfast.

"I'd be happy to," Scorpius replied amiably.

"Alright my boy I'll show you where to find them," Slughorn said. Scorpius shot Albus an apologetic look before turning to follow the potions master.

Albus sighed and continued walking to the Great Hall alone. He was three quarters of the way there when he was interrupted yet again. This time it was by a ghost. This particular ghost was familiar to Albus. He carried the same semi-transparent aura that the other ghosts carried. His eyes were like two pieces of black coal that never stooped staring with unnaturally dilated pupils. On his head sat a powdery old fashioned wig that matched the equally dated dress robes that he wore. In his chest was a dark red stain where blood had once ran out of. Around his body hung heavy chains that constantly burdened him.

"Mr. Potter," the baron greeted in a quiet hoarse voice.

"Hello Baron," Albus said his voice slightly tired. He was looking forward to his breakfast and if he kept getting interrupted he wouldn't make it.

"You sound tired Mr. Potter," the baron said.

"I guess I'm just not used to waking up so early," Albus said slightly confused. The baron's eyes were slightly more glazed over than usual.

"Yes I have been feeling tired lately too," the baron whispered.

Albus nodded and smiled slightly, "Perhaps you should get some sleep" Albus said humorously.

"Yes some sleep would be nice," the baron said dazed.

"Um I guess I'll see you around baron," Albus said quickly.

"Wait," the baron commanded in a suddenly strong voice.

Albus spun around obediently, "Yes sir."

"Have you seen the threstles?" the baron inquired

Albus frowned, trying to remember where he had heard that word before, "Those are the things that pull the carriages right?"

"So you have seen them?" the baron inquired although he didn't seem particularly interested from his tone.

"No," Albus said," Just heard of them why?"

"Another young girl said she saw them. Perhaps she was mistaken," he mumbled to himself. With that the ghost drifted through the wall, leaving without even saying good bye.

Albus took off quickly towards the Great Hall before anyone else could interrupt him. When he got there he saw Daniel and Cato sitting at the far end shoveling food into their mouths like pigs. Naturally, he went over to join them.

"Sup Al," Cato asked his mouth still full.

"Nothing, just had a chat with the Bloody Baron, that's all," Albus said nonchalantly.

"I hear he's cool," Daniel said.

"He actually sounded pretty out of it, if a ghost could be out of it. His eyes were really big and he sounded kind of dazed. He reminded me of Lorcan and Lysander's mom actually," Albus mused.

Cato stared hard at him for a moment, "Your kidding right? I mean the Bloody Baron is bloody awesome. You know what they say about the Scamander's mom? They call her Loony Lovegood. Our house ghost is most certainly not Loony thank you very much," he snapped.

Albus debated on yelling at Cato, Luna was like family after all. He eventually decided it wasn't worth it and so he finished his breakfast in silence. By the time it was over Scorpious had returned in the same peppy manner he had been in a little while earlier.

"Ready for the first day of lessons," he asked. Albus groaned, Scorpius was far too enthusiastic about school.

He swung his feet around and stood up, "Ready as I'll ever be."

Scorpius pulled their time tables out of his pocket (Slughorn had given them to Scorpius when he was helping him with the nuts). First on the list was Herbology with the Hufflepuffs (thankfully not the Ravenclaws no need for Scorpius and Rose to hit it off again).

When they walked into the classroom a new face sat in the front of the room. Instead of the usual elderly heavy set woman that the boys had come to know as Professor Sprout, sitting behind the teacher's desk was a man. He was small and fragile looking with crooked glasses and a very scholarly look to him. His light brown short hair stood up straight in a natural sort of way. His amber eyes sparkled as he watched the students file in. Albus didn't quite know what it was about the man, but immediately he knew he liked him.

Albus exchanged a look with Scorpius; he didn't know who the stranger was either. The two didn't have to wait long to find out who he was. Once all of the students were in their seats the man stood to address the class.

"Well I'm sure you are all wondering where Professor Sprout is," he began, "I believe the best way to put it is that she is indisposed at the moment and the date of her return is uncertain at the moment."

Scorpius leaned over to Albus, "Well that explains loads," he said sarcastically.

Albus nodded, "I wonder what's happened," Albus responded nervously, "I mean she was there at the feast last night"

The man didn't hear them and continued to speak, "In the wake of her absence I will be filling in as the Herbology teacher. My name is Adamus Carter, you all will of course call me Professor Carter. I know I have all of the Hufflepuffs in here and because Professor Sprout was the head of your house I will be filling in for her in that area as well."

Albus and Scorpius exchanged another glance, for them to need a filler as head of house Professor Sprout must be taking a very extended leave of absence. She wasn't exactly a young woman, for all they knew she might have dropped dead.

"Alright well I guess we should get started then," Professor Carter said pushing his crooked glasses up his nose. The man reached into his back pocket and pulled out a crinkled piece of paper out from his pocket. He squinted at it for a moment announced they would be starting on page twenty of their herbology book.

Albus read the title of the page, _Trimming a Shrivelfig Plant. _Albus smiled happily, under the tittle it said that the plants weren't dangerous. At the front of the class Professor Carter had his glasses in his hand as he struggled to read what the text said on the page that he had told the class to turn to. After another moment he returned to the crinkled paper and proceeded to squint at that.

Finally Scorpius sighed and said, "Professor would you like us to get the plants and trim them?" he asked trying to sound polite.

Professor Carter smiled thankfully, "Yes all of you can grab the-" he squinted at the paper again.

"Shrivelfigs," Scorpius supplied for him.

"Ah yes the Shrivelfigs," he said, "They are the green ones by the window." Now this may sound like a vague description but of the four plants that were basking in the sunlight two were brown and one was an unnatural blue, so that left only one green plant.

Once all the students had received the plant the professor himself grabbed one and took a pair of sheers. He squinted for another moment at the book and then back to his own paper before addressing the class again, "Right so we only want to give them a small trim today. It says that you take the sheers like this and just cut back all the new sprigs off. If I am correct then those are the little stems that are protruding from the larger one."

He sounded like he wasn't quite sure of himself so Scorpius felt the need to confirm this, " Yes you're correct."

The professor nodded, "Yes I thought so," he mumbled examining the plant with furrowed eyebrows. He glanced at his crinkled paper again, "Right so just follow my lead. If you get lost then just look to the book I'm quite sure there are instructions in there." Albus frowned, the man had spent the last twenty minutes staring at the book. He should have realized that the entire page was step by step instructions of what they were doing.

"Right so take your sheers like this," Professor Carter started. He continued to explain step by step what to do. Occasionally he would pause and stare at his crinkled paper or glance back over at the instructions. It was strange, he didn't really seem to know what he was doing, but at the same time they all learned loads because he did it step by step with them.

"Alright I think we are done for the day," Professor Carter said pushing his glasses up his nose. His amber eyes flashed back over to the class, "You guys can leave if you'd like."

Albus and Scorpius left the class after another moment. Scorpius' good mood seemed to have vanished as his mouth was set into a deep frown.

"Don't like the new teacher?" Albus asked.

Scorpius shook his head, "I didn't learn anything today. In fact I think I taught him," he said with a sigh, "I thought we might learn something in that class this year."

Albus rolled his eyes, "This is your fault you know. If you didn't read the book cover to cover already then you wouldn't know more than our teacher."

Scorpius scowled, "It's called being a good student Al you should try it some time."

Albus let out a laugh, "I'm the best student in our year thank you very much"

"Uh huh," Scorpius said sarcastically.

The two boys both let out a loud laugh as they continued on their way to Potions class.


	5. Chapter 5 Slytherin Try Outs

The following month passed in a relatively uneventful blur. Professor Carter fit right into the Hogwarts life, as Herbology was starting to become one of Albus' favorite classes, just behind potions. The newspapers didn't seem to be saying anything about the disappearances, so the boys were forced to assume that there weren't anymore. Before long all of their worries had slipped into a remote corner of their minds. After all they had much more important things to be concerned about at the moment. Quidditch try outs were today.

Scorpius was pacing in the dormitory as Albus slipped a green sock onto his foot. "I really don't see what the big deal is," Albus said jumping to his feet.

"You also are mostly blind," Scorpius shot back annoyed," You wouldn't be able to _see _what a huge deal this is?"

Albus snorted," Come on you're going to be late."

"So I hear that Weasley is trying out," Scorpius said indifferently.

Albus rolled his eyes," She's trying out for chaser. My mom spent a lot of time this summer tutoring her and stuff."

Scorpius nodded thoughtfully, "Chaser huh."

"Please try to be nice," Albus asked with a sigh. Scorpius was going out for keeper. This meant that the two would have one more opportunity to go at each other's throats.

Scorpius shook his head," I make no promises."

The two were coming up to the pitch now. In front of the gate was a group of students all standing around dressed in green quidditch robes. When they approached them a tall girl with wild raven black hair came up to greet them.

Her icy blue eyes examined them carefully as she approached, "My name is Cyrus Bole, I'm captain," she said coldly, "You are?"

"Scorpius Malfoy," Scorpius answered confidently.

She nodded and turned her gaze to Albus expectantly. He squirmed uncomfortable in under her gaze, "Um I'm not trying out," he said nervously.

"You're a Potter what do you mean you're not trying out?" she asked harshly.

"I um can't play quidditch," he muttered in response.

"Then why are you at my try outs?" Cyrus demanded.

"He's here for moral support," Scorpius answered for him.

"Moral support," she said loudly, more to herself than to anyone else, "Go get in the stands then. I don't need anyone else crowding up my tunnel."

Albus stuttered out something incoherent as he stumbled towards the stands.

Scorpius watched his friend leave as he stayed by the intimidating upper classman.

"Malfoy what's your year and position?" She asked once Albus had left.

"Second year and keeper," he responded.

Cyrus snorted, "You're in your second year," she cried incredulously, "Well ain't that swell."

She walked back over to the group of other possible players. After a moment he realized she'd wanted him to follow her. Scorpious strolled over to the group of player. Most of them looked like they were about fourth years and up. To the rest of them he probably seemed like he was relatively calm. On the inside, however, his nerves flying and twisting around inside of him.

After another fifteen minutes of standing around Cyrus decided to start. The group walked down to the locker rooms, grabbing their brooms. Scorpius gripped his black Caelum 100. His father had bought him the fastest broom out there, so that he had his best chance at making it.

"Hey who are you?" asked an older looking boy.

"Scorpious Malfoy, I'm trying out for keeper" Scorpius responded holding out a hand.

The older boy took it with a nod, " M' names Luke Derrick, I'm the star seeker."

Scorpius nodded and opened his mouth to say something but he was interrupted. "Everyone out," Cyrus demanded pointing towards the door. She didn't exactly scream the command; however, the majority of the players froze nervously when she spoke.

Luke was the only one who seemed to react to her. He grabbed his broom jumping onto it and zooming out into the pitch. With his initiative the rest of them all followed suit.

Being on the broom made Scorpius feel slightly better. The familiar feel of wind flowing through his hair gave him an odd feeling of security. He was all over this.

Meanwhile in Albus sat in the stands watching the prospective players with little interest. His feet were resting on the bench in front of him and his arms folded behind his head. He probably could've taken a nap at the moment if he didn't have to be supportive and such. At the moment the Cyrus seemed to be ordering them around, having them line up in their air.

"Hey bro what's going on?" someone asked from behind him. Albus jumped and turned to see who was talking to him.

"James?" Albus asked exasperated. His brother was sitting behind him. At least he thought it was his brother. The boy's hair was a chalky white, rather than its usual reddish brown. Around his neck hung a silver and green tie that was slightly too short for his long lanky figure. The boy was currently pushing a pair of gaudy glasses up his nose irratably. He usually wore contacts.

"Who else would it be?" James responded feigning offense.

"Why is your hair not black and why are you wearing my tie?" Albus asked immediately.

"Well there is a really long story behind all of that, you see. I don't really think it's relevant right now," he responded not exactly helpfully.

Albus sighed, "Why are you here?"

James shot him a lop-sided grin, "I can't I come check up on my brother every now and then?"

"Not when you're wearing a Slytherin uniform," Albus responded. Then it hit him," You're spying aren't you."

James put his hands up pretending to be innocent, "Now would I do that?"

"Yes you would," Albus said. James didn't have anything to say to that, instead he let out a loud laugh and just shook his head. Albus glanced back up at the Scorpious who was squinting in his direction.

"Hey, Malfoy what are you staring at?" Cyrus demanded.

"Nothing," Scorpious replied immediately.

"Uhuh," she said skeptically, "I said to go get into the goal post. Now."

Scorpious leaned forward and skillfully swung around in front of the center post.

"You with the brown hair, you want to be a chaser? Then score on him," Cyrus demanded pointing a finger at Scorpious. The girl that she was talking to grabbed the quaffle from Cyrus and started to rush the posts. Scorpious watched her eyes carefully as she took aim. She was going for the right post. Once her arm was set in motion Scorpious rushed over to the lower post, plucking the quaffle from the air with ease. He grinned largely at Cyrus.

The girl narrowed her eyes at him. "You think you're so great huh?" she cried angrily she flew down to the girl and yanked the quaffle (which Scorpious had just given back) from the poor fourth years hand. Cyrus turned and reared back agrily at Scorpious. Instead of throwing it at one of the unguarded posts Cyrus chucked the quaffle full speed right at Scorpious. He prepared himself to catch it but it was traveling too fast. Instead it slipped through his hands nailing him in the gut. He felt himself falling forward as pain radiated from his gut. Someone caught him before he collided with the ground.

Luke set him gently beside his broom in the sand below the three posts.

"Nice save kid," he praised, picking the quaffle out from his hands. "Most people duck when she does that. I think she must like you."

Scorpious nodded wordlessly. Cyrus was currently in the air screaming at the girl who's toss he had blocked.

"Out!" she was yelling, "Get out of my practice!"

Luke let out a laugh as he listened to her scream, "You should get back before she kicks you out too."

He got back onto his broom and traveled back to his positions by the goal post. Luke followed him up.

"Hey Cy hun, go easy on them please. We don't need to murder the entire team yet," he said bravely.

"Do you need to leave too Derrick?" she threatened.

"Come on we both now you can't go on without me by your side," he replied.

Cyrus narrowed her eyes at him and the two stared at each other for a minute, "You too. Out! Now!"

Luke sighed but he didn't seem upset at all, "See ya at practice tomorrow hun. Don't start without me." She glared at him as he exited the stadium.

Scorpius was much more careful after Luke and the other girl got kicked out. At the end of the day he managed to get away with only letting one goal past him, which was less than the other two boys trying out for keeper. At noon the group (now significantly smaller, since three more kids got an early boot) lowered themselves down to the grass and everyone circled around Cyrus.

Her eyes scanned all of the prospects carefully one last time, "All right our team is as follows: at beater I have Brian Lament and Arcas Crockett, at chaser I have, me, Leda Warrington, and Carrey Montegue, Derrick is going to be seeker again, and finally at keeper Scorpius Malfoy. If you didn't make it get out now."

A few long faces made their way towards the exit. Scorpius felt his heart beating fast in his chest as his spirits soared.

"Do you know who won the cup last year," she asked.

"Gryffindor did," one of the beaters, Brian said.

"That's right bloody god damned Grffindor did," Cyrus screamed. "Do you know who's going to win this year?"

"We are," Scorpius answered.

Cyrus let out a loud laugh, "You better hope so kid."

With that she turned and left leaving the rest of the team behind to clean up. Scorpius looked up at the stands towards Albus and the brown haired stranger he was with. He gave his best friend thumbs up. Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy was the new Slytherin keeper and he had every intent of winning this year.


	6. Chapter 6 Ravenclaw Try Outs

Rose pushed her eggs around artfully on her plate carefully into the shape of three quidditch posts. Tryouts were in a half an hour and nobody in the lunch room could be more nervous. She was starting to feel better of course when none other than Scorpius Malfoy walked into the lunch room. His blonde hair was uncharacteristically disheveled as he strode into the room in his quidditch robes. His manner looked particularly obnoxious today, thus she figured it was fair to say he made the team. Well that was just swell. Now there was the added pressure of one upping Malfoy.

"Ignore him," Casey, her best friend, said. "Don't worry you'll be fine."

"I know," Rose muttered back automatically. She scanned the room counting every Weasly/Potter that was on a quidditch team. There was Dominique (Gryffindor captain and chaser), Luis (keeper), James (seeker), Fred (beater), and Molly (Ravenclaw chaser). If you also counted Teddy and Victorie who both graduated then that made seven. That made seven relatives that she had to prove herself too. On top of that Aunt Ginny played chaser professionally. It was a lot of pressure. She gave a deep sigh and pushed the eggs around on her plate again making a new design.

Rose looked back up at the Slytherin table. Albus was sitting across from Malfoy with a proud grin on his face. His green eyes flicked over to her and he shot her an encouraging smile. She sighed and turned back around to her eggs. Albus was making her nerves worse.

"Hey Rose you ready?" a high pitched voice asked from behind her. Rose spun around to see her cousin Molly. Her face chocolate brown hair was cut in a short bob that highlighted her high cheek bones. Her face was littered with freckles and her striking blue eyes shined brightly with excitement.

"I guess," she muttered in response. Rose stood up and followed her older cousin out the door of the Great Hall. She glanced back only once to give Casey a good bye look.

"Don't worry you'll be fine," Molly chimed as the two rounded another corner.

"Mhhhm," Rose mumbled, "Who is the captain again?"

Molly rolled her eyes, " It's Davies, Emmitt Davies. Again don't worry he's nice."

Rose sighed, her cousin had told her this four times over the summer yet somehow it always seemed to slip out of her head. Molly led her away from the pitch at the last second turning towards a small building a few yards away from the group of Ravenclaws. The building had a large blue banner with a bronze raven intricately decorating the center.

"Locker room," Molly explained. Inside sat two other players. One of them was tall with shaggy blonde hair that fell slightly into his eyes. Judging by his height and confort level, he was at least a sixth year possibly seventh The boy's mouth was set in a stony frown as he listened to the other boy speak. This second boy's hand was running his hand through his sandy hair in a frustrated manner making it stick up. His lanky stature gave him a slightly younger look than the blonde one. He was probably Molly's age.

"Spying on us already," The blonde muttered," Gryffindor hasn't even had their tryouts yet."

"Hey Emmitt," Molly chimed when they entered.

The blonde boy's eyes flicked up at her seriously, "Hey Molly," he grunted seriously. "Your cousin has been spying on us."

Rose raised an eyebrow, "Which one?" Molly asked for the both of them.

"Potter," the sandy haired one replied for him.

Rose bit her lip, "Albus wouldn't spy on anyone," she blurted out harshly.

"No the other Potter," the sandy haired boy shot back, sounding slightly annoyed.

Davies' brown eyes were studing Rose now, "You know Potter?" he asked.

Molly let out an over exaggerated sigh, "This is Rose, she is one of my cousins. Of course she knows him," she cried.

Emmitt nodded at Molly and held his hand out to Rose, "I'm Emmitt Davies the captain, and this is Hunter Samuels," he said. Samuels nodded in Rose's direction in acknowledgement.

Molly, who had disappeared for a moment, returned now with two brooms. "Here Rose," she said tossing her Caelum 100 to her. Rose gripped the broom tightly in her hand. Her dad had insisted that she get a new broom in honor of her trying out. They had bought her the best one out.

"We should start Em," Molly quipped leading them out of the locker room. Rose smiled slightly to herself she couldn't help but notice how Molly kept flipping her hair and subtly fluttering her eyelids in Davies direction. Once out there the small group of players huddled around Davies for instructions.

"Alright, I want to start with everyone introducing themselves. Announce your name and position," Davies instructed, "I'll start, I'm Emmitt and I play beater."

"I'm Hunter Samuels and I'm the other beater"

"Molly Weasley, chaser"

Rose looked around searching for the next speaker. It wasn't until her cousin gave her a gentle nudge that she realized it was her, "Rose Weasley, chaser," she squeaked.

The girl next to her gave an obnoxious snort, "Cara Stretton, seeker," she announced arrogantly. Rose shot a steely glare at the girl, hopefully she didn't make it. When the girl noticed Rose's look, she simply formed her red lips into a fake smile and flipped her long black hair over her shoulder.

Rose didn't pay much attention to the rest of the names that were announced; however, one last one did stand out.

"I'm Max Burrow, I'm gonna be your next chaser," the boy announced. Rose pursed her lips together and glanced over to see who was so confident in themselves. Standing a few people down from her was a short boy that she recognized. The kid was short with a mess of milky brown curls sat on top of his head. His mouth was pulled into a wide toothy grin as he crossed his arms assertively across his chest.

"Let's start then," Davies said after Burrow had introduced himself. Rose mounted her broom and flew up into the center of the pitch. She could see Molly out of the corner of her eye flying a few feet away from Davies.

"Everyone in positions," Davies called. Rose nodded and positioned herself in the center slightly above Burrow. "We're running a mock game. I want Molly, Burrow, Weasley, Hunter, Westly, and Patters on one team, and me, Stretton, Jacobson, Lane, and Pryce. One beater per team."

Davies landed on the ground momentarily, released the snitch, shot the bludgers a good distance away, and tossed the quaffle up officially starting their game. Rose watched to red ball travel upwards in the air. She didn't exactly think that she would go for the toss when they had started. In fact, she had decided against it. If you go for the toss and don't get it you end up looking stupid. As she watched it reach the peak of its toss she didn't exactly think about what she was doing. She simply acted on instinct, and instinct told her to go get the quaffle. She felt herself diving forward the air passing around her body. She reached her arm out grabbing for the red ball. Another kid on the other team went for it too, but she was faster. She plucked the ball from the air and curved around the charging girl. Before she knew it the only thing that was in between her and the goal post was the keeper.

At this point she faced a choice, she could throw the quaffle at the goal and hope her throw was faster than the keeper's broom, or she could pass it to Molly who was open a few feet behind her. She chose the later. Just seconds before she collided with the middle post she faked a throw at the right post. The girl in the keeper's post dove for it, and as she did Rose threw the ball to her cousin. With the left post now completely open the goal was an easy one for Molly to make. The two exchanged a short grin before getting back into the game.

Rose couldn't have done better, she stole the quaffle three times from a guy named Lane on the other team, scored four times, and had five assists. Molly, Burrow, and she made the perfect team as they dominated. The current score was 200 to 70 as they approached the hour mark. It was at this point that the two seekers overhead started moving. Rose tried not to pay attention as they zoomed around the pitch.

"Rose," Molly called out as she threw the quaffle at her. Rose caught it with ease and rocketed towards the goal. Left around Daniels, right around Pryce, now all that was left was throwing it into the goal.

"ROSE WATCH OUT," someone yelled. Her eyes flicked up towards the sky to see Stretton diving down towards her. On their current course they were going to collide. She pulled up on her broom at the last moment nearly falling backwards, trying to stop her motion. Stretton shot passed her in a blur of motion as Rose felt herself falling towards the ground. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited to hit the ground. It was quite painful. There was a loud cracking noise on contact. She felt light headed when she opened her eyes to see her leg twisted painfully in an unnatural position.

"Oh my gosh I'm so sorry," Stretton cried. Her hand was posed over her mouth in a shocked expression. In her other hand she held the snitch. Rose might have believed the apology, if it were delivered in a slightly more genuine way. Her voiced was coated in a sugary sweetness that couldn't be real in anyone. She was a bit preoccupied to be overtly mad at the moment though.

In another moment Molly was kneeling next to her, "Don't move," she instructed.

Davies was on her other side now wearing a concerned expression," We need to get her to Madame Pomfrey," he was saying, "I can't have one of my new chasers injured." Rose felt her heart swell and her lips move into a wide grin.

"Come on Rosie," Molly murmured. Davies and Molly both moved her arms over their shoulders and hoisted her up carrying her all the way to the hospital wing.

* * *

><p>Albus frowned as he sat beside Rose in her hospital bed. "Are you going to tell us or not?" she demanded.<p>

"Um no," he said feebly. When he had heard the news of her recent injury he had ran straight to the hospital. His mistake was to bring Scorpius with him. It only took the two of them ten minutes to get knee deep into an argument. He wasn't even sure what it was about, but somehow they had gotten onto the 'what team are you going to root for' subject.

"Maybe he doesn't have to answer," Scorpius retorted, "At least I'm not the one demanding my friends to make absurd declarations. Hah and you think I'm the one being pigheaded. Anyway you know Albus wouldn't hurt your delicate little feelings when you're injured.

"My leg is injured Malfoy. I promise you my wand arm isn't," Rose threatened.

Scorpius snorted loudly, "It wouldn't matter, you wouldn't be able to hit me if I was enlarged to three times my size."

"Hey guys look its Neville I'm going now," Albus whispered quietly. Neither of them heard him and so neither noticed when he disappeared to go greet the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

"Hi Neville," Albus greeted, as the professor walked into the hospital.

"I'm Professor Longbottom here Al," Neville reminded him, "How's Rose?"

"She is quite fine," Albus said glancing over his shoulder at his two arguing friends. "They are arguing about which team I'm going to support."

Neville nodded as a shadow of a grin passed over his face, "It sounds like you need an out," he supplied.

Albus brought his eyebrows together confused, "Sure."

"You see our announcer has graduated this year. We need another," Neville explained. "The announcer is supposed to be indifferent."

Albus felt a grin forming on his face, "That would be great," he said happily.

Neville smiled, "I'll go talk with Professor McGonagall." With that the man turned and walked briskly off in the other direction.

* * *

><p>AN I'm so sorry for the late update. School's hit me hard this week and I haven't had much writing time. Hopefully it will ease up so that I can get some more progress with my stories.

Right so if you haven't noticed Neville isn't the Herbology teacher. I had him as the Defense teacher in the prequel and so I'm keeping him there in this story.

Hope you like this update, tell me what you think


	7. Chapter 7 Dung Bombs

Albus studied the blue card carefully, taking in every detail of it. On the front was a young man that was probably around twenty. His face was streaked with dirt, his hair fell in black clumps in front of his eyes, and his glasses had a deep crack in them. Despite his grimy state, the man seemed happy enough. Actually, he seemed more relieved as he stared out at Albus. Every now and then he would brush his hair out from in front his eyes revealing a lighting shaped scar on his forehead.

His father had told him that his own chocolate frog card had been taken a few hours after the famous battle of Hogwarts. Albus had never seen one himself before. Harry Potter cards were exceedingly rare. Then earlier that day he won a bet with Scorpius so his friend bought him six frogs. His father happened to be in the third box.

"Hey Albus," Cato called from across the dormitory.

"What do you want?" Albus moaned back.

"You do the Potions essay?" he asked.

"What essay?" Albus asked sitting upright in his bed. His mind went back to potions class earlier that week. He had sat next to Scorpious and the two of them had made the Giggling Emulsion just as Slughorn had instructed. Then Scorpius had suggested that they try it to make sure it was brewed correctly. Albus had agreed and taken a small teaspoon. The two then found out that they had made the best in the class because Albus started laughing uncontrollably. The rest of the class had passed in a painful blur as he was giggling so hard his gut had started to ache.

"The one on proper potion safety measures," Cato replied bored. Albus thought hard about the fifteen minutes at the end of class. Now that Cato mentioned it, the homework did seem familiar.

"Its due tomorrow isn't it," he groaned.

"I take it that I you didn't do it then," Cato muttered disappointed. He probably wanted to copy off of Albus.

Albus jumped up from his bed and glanced at the clock. It was only six so he had some time. He slipped on his shoes and started walking through the common room. As he started to become familiar with his surroundings at Hogwarts, the giant castle had started to seem slightly smaller. At the moment, however, it never seemed so large. He had to go through two large hallways to make it to the staircase. Then he had to travel up two flights of stairs to make it to the main level. Then he would have to cut through the transfigurations courtyard to make it to the main stair case. Another three flights of stairs later he would be on the correct floor just to have to navigate through a maze of hallways to reach the libraries. The entire endeavor seemed impossibly time consuming. He managed to cut down his commute to just fifteen minutes though as he half ran half fast walked his way to the library.

Albus was in eye sight of the front door when he got interrupted by two all too familiar family members. "Al hey long time no see," Fred called gleefully from down the hallway. Albus looked up to find James, Fred, and the Scamander twins walking his way. In Lorcan's arms was a very sketchy looking sack that seemed to be awfully heavy.

"Can we do this later?" Albus sighed. "I have to write an essay for Slughorn right now."

"That's rough," James said sympathetically, "You should really learn some time management skills."

Fred snorted, "By that he means that it's not worth your time…"

"So you can manage without it," James finished. Lysander rolled his eyes as the other three started cracking up.

Albus frowned deeply at his brother. "Cause we all know what good grades you pulled in potions last year," he muttered sarcastically.

James clicked his tongue unimpressed, "Aw come on I did fine. Anyway you don't want to be on my bad side right now," James warned flashing Albus a very mischievous grin. Albus glanced at the bag Lorcan was holding.

"What's in the bag?" Albus asked suspiciously.

"We paid Zonko's a visit on our last trip to Hogsmede," Lorcan answered innocently.

"That's reassuring," Albus muttered.

Fred slug an arm around Albus' shoulder and he soon found himself being dragged back towards the stair case. "Promise no telling Al," Fred said. It wasn't so much of a question then a demand.

"I really think I should get my essay done," Albus said struggling to break his cousin's grasp just to find James falling into step on his other side blocking his escape route.

"So we bought a few dung bombs," James said merrily.

"Just a few," Lorcan chimed in sarcastically.

"Wait," Lysander suddenly demanded once they were at the mouth of the stair case. The other three stopped moving on command turning to look at their forth. Lysander silently stepped around his friends and examined the view from their position. "We need to go up two flights. Better angle is up there." Lorcan glanced at his brother through one of his blue eyes before shrugging and leading them up another flight.

Once there Lorcan placed his large bag down on the floor and peered over the railing down at his unsuspecting victims.

"Guys we need to let Albus go. He's going to get us caught," Lysander decided. Fred let go of Albus immediately and James backed up a bit. Albus narrowed his eyes at Lysander. He knew better than to trust the twin. Although Lysander was by far the most civilized of the four, he also could be considered the most dangerous.

"I'm going to go then," Albus said backing up slowly.

James snorted," Bye then," he said amused.

Albus nodded and turned to head back down the stairs to his previous floor. He was about halfway down the flight when he felt the floor jerk suddenly. He reached out and grabbed the railing for dear life. He cursed inwardly, the stair case was moving.

"I need to go that way," he whined to no one in particular. Albus glanced down, he would need to travel to the second floor now and wrap around to get to the library. It was going to be a very unfortunate waste of time. Once the stair case thudded to a stop he hurried down towards the second floor. He had just reached the bottom when he heard someone shout.

"Look out!" a Ravenclaw kid yelled. Albus didn't need to look up to know what was coming, he did look however. The first bomb hit the floor exploding, but not hitting anyone. The second one was coming now. Albus followed its line of fire quickly searching for where this one was going to hit. It was heading for a first year girl. Albus didn't have time to think, only to act.

"Move," he yelled to the girl. At the same time he jumped forward running towards her. He reached her in a millisecond. In another millisecond he had gracefully pushed her over and onto the floor. In another millisecond he found himself covered in a suspicious brown gunk and with a new odor on him. Albus took his now covered glasses off face and glanced up at the fourth floor. He could hear Lysander cracking up from all the way down here.

"Are you ok," he heard a high pitched voice ask him.

He glanced to his right to see the blurry figure of the girl he had pushed over. From her position he guessed she was staring at him but he couldn't tell. His glasses were coated in dung bomb residue and he was blind without them.

"I'm fine," Albus muttered, "I think I'm going to have to shower again tonight though." He took his glasses and wiped them off to the best of his ability. When he slipped them back on he looked over to see who he had just saved. The first thing he noticed about her was the peculiar color of her hair. It was a silvery white color which he found quite unusual for an eleven year old. The second thing he noticed was the tie that hung around her neck. She was a Slytherin. That was good. At least he wouldn't be getting crap about how he was being such a good person for the enemy. Instead he would just get crap about how he was being such a good person.

"Um thanks," she said awkwardly.

Albus nodded silently and whipped some of the grime off his robes," Well you know I'm used to it and stuff. The bomber was my brother so…" Albus responded.

The girl nodded, "um I'm Isabel Flynn. You can call me Izzy though."

"Albus," he responded holding out a hand, "Albus Potter."

She looked at it for a moment before he realized he was covered in grime and that shaking hands wasn't the smartest thing to do at the moment.

"Well I should go take a shower," Albus said.

The girl nodded," Alright see you around Albus."

Albus nodded and watched her walk up the stairs. He sighed and looked down at robes. It looks like he wouldn't be getting his essay done tonight. He laughed, it looked like Scorpius was going to have to write a second essay.


	8. Chapter 8 Gryffindor vs Slytherin

Scorpious took a good look at himself in the mirror. The crisp green quidditch robes gave him a rather athletic look. He took a deep breath. This was it, his first quidditch game.

"Hey I've got to go," Albus said as jumped up from the locker room bench. Scorpious nodded without taking his eyes of the green crest that sat on his reflection's chest.

"Kay" Scorpious said although he wasn't playing much attention. He closed his eyes for a moment. He was calm. He wasn't nervous. He was a good player. He was going to kill it out there.

"Alright," Albus said as he slowly backed out of the room, "Well good luck." Scorpious glanced over at his friend's outfit quickly before he exited. He looked strange without the normal green that adorned his jumper. Instead he wore a simple black tie with a Hogwarts crest on his chest. Albus had explained it all to Scorpious when Neville had offered it to him a few weeks ago. Apparently, the announcer was supposed to be indifferent. This was rare though as all students prior to Albus suffered from an obvious case of bias. Albus was probably the first in Hogwarts history that wasn't rooting for anyone.

Scorpious took a final look at the mirror before joining his team mates on the other side of the room. Luke Derrick was lounging on the bench taking a nap at the moment as Arcas Crocket and Carrey Montegue talked over him.

"Cyrus is going to murder someone when she walks in here," Scorpious said nodding towards Derrick's sleeping figure.

"She'll only go off on Luke," Carrey said with a shrug, "And she will only yell at him. She won't admit it but she needs him on the team, thus he will get away with his life."

"Its not fair," Arcas mumbled in complaint.

"Nervous yet?" Carrey asked changing the subject.

Scorpious shrugged," Not really," he admitted.

Arcas shot him a slightly annoyed look and opened his mouth to say something, but he got interrupted before he got his sentence out. "DERRICK," a familiar voice screeched, "IF YOU DON'T GET UP NOW I PROMISE YOU WON'T BE PLAYING ANYTIME SOON."

Luke jumped a little as he looked groggily up at the fuming Cyrus, "Chill out," he moaned sleepily.

"The first game of the season," Cyrus mumbled to herself. Luke swung his feet onto the floor and stood up lazily.

Then in a swift violent and unexpected movement Cyrus grabbed his collar and pulled him close. "You are going to catch that snitch today Derrick," she declared in a smooth tone. She didn't give him any alternative, and by the way her icy blue eyes narrowed, the threat was clear in the air.

Luke had lost his groggy look now, instead he seemed suddenly alert and uncharacteristically serious. He held Cyrus' gaze for a moment and the two just glared at each other, Cyrus still clutching his collar dangerously.

It didn't last very long because after a moment his mouth fell into a unique lopsided grin, "You know you have the most beautiful eyes when you are being a git," he complimented her.

She clenched her jaw and released his robes. Just as she turned and everyone thought the disaster had been averted she, spun quickly back around and socked him square in the jaw. Now this was no average girly slap, it was an all-out boxer like punch. Thus it was perfectly reasonable that Luke found himself knocked backwards into Arcas with a hand pressed against the right side of his face.

"I'm going to go get my broom," Cyrus said, "When I come back I expect to find a quiddtich team, not nap time." With that she turned and stalked out of the room. The Slytherin quidditch team stood there in a shocked silence for a solid five minutes before anyone spoke.

Of course when someone did open there mouth that someone was Luke, "She totally wants me so bad right now," he said as he rubbed his cheek.

"Dude when you turn up suspiciously in a ditch somewhere we'll know who did it," Brian Lament (who had turned up sometime during the confrontation) said.

Scorpios couldn't contain himself anymore and started cracking up, "Hey you're going to look tough going out there with your black eye," he laughed.

Luke grinned, "I'm a world class fighter you know. If anyone asks I won this one kay?" he joked.

"She's coming back," Leda Warrington warned.

"You have to watch out for Potter," Brian said as they all pretended to talk strategy for Cyrus' sake.

Cyrus walked in and glanced around the room suspiciously. After a moment she seemed to decide that their state was acceptable. "Follow me," she demanded, "Let's go knock some Gryffindors off their brooms."

Their locker room let out into the tunnel. From there the noise started. They weren't yet in the stadium, but it was over whelming. Cyrus waved her hand and the team mounted their brooms. Scorpious let a small smile start to form on his lips. The excitement in the stadium was contagious. With another wave of the hand everyone was shooting out of the tunnel. Wind billowed through Scorpious' blonde hair as he whirled into his spot in front of the posts.

Professor Longbottem was standing in the center of the grass with a chest that contained all of the quidditch balls. "Alright as usual I want a clean game," he called. He reached into his chest and released the snitch. Scorpious couldn't make out the small golden ball from the distance he was at. He did however notice that James' head craned upward a few seconds after it was released. Next came the bludger. When Professor Longbottem released it, the brown ball flew upwards in Arcas' direction. Arcas wheeled his arm back and hit it hard at one of the Gryffindor chasers. The girl got out of the way just in time, but it didn't change the peeved look on her face after the injury was averted. Finally, Professor Longbottem went for the quaffle that was all he was concerned about. The red ball was thrown into the air and with that the game began. Cyrus was the one to go for it of course. She didn't trust Leda or Carrey with the job. She and the girl who dodged the bludger both dove after the red ball as it reached the peak of its arc. Normally they would choose a side and whoever got there first would get the ball. This wasn't Cyrus' strategy though. She didn't go for the quaffle, instead she went for the other chaser, colliding with her in mid-air. The other girl fell from her broom as Cyrus came away with the quaffle.

"Oh jeez Dom are you ok?," Scorpious heard Albus say over the intercom. "Oops I mean Cyrus Bole comes away with the quaffle as Dominique Weasley takes a nasty hit."

Scorpious snorted, this was going to be interesting. "Where is Gryffindor's chasers? Bole goes right towards the goal. Oh and the pass to Leda Warrington. Jessie Wood dives for the save, but he misses. Ten points for Slytherin," Albus narrated, "Nice try Jessie." He sounded genuinely sorry for Wood's failure. The Slytherin students in the stands were going wild now as everyone yelled Boooooooole in a deep yell.

"Hey Malfoy watch it," he heard Brian yell from somewhere. Scorpious looked to his left to see a bludger speeding towards him. Behind it was a dark skinned boy that he recognized to be Fred Weasley. Albus' cousin was looking particularly devil like at the moment with the wicked grin on his face. The bludger was maybe a few feet away from him now, but so were the Gryffindor chasers with the quaffle. He dodged the bludger, knowing what the results were.

"Fred!" Albus yelled unhappily," Oh um Fred Weasley hits the bludger at Scorpious Malfoy. Malfoy dodges the bludger, leaving the post open. And Ben Thomas takes the easy shot. Ten points for Gryffindor. Now we're tied."

Scorpious recovered and glanced over at Cyrus. She was a little preoccupied at the moment to be mad at him, but he was sure to hear it later.

"Brian Lament with the bludger fires at Betsie Kirke. Ouch jeez stop hurting each other. Oh um and Leda Warrington with the shot, saved by Wood. Wood passes it to Dom and oh whoops I mean Dominique Weasley, he passes it to Dominique Weasley. She has the quaffle passes it to Zachary Coote. Coot rears back for the shot," Albus was announcing. Scorpious eyed to boy with the large afro carefully as he approached. His eyes flicked to the right then the left. Scorpious shot down to his right catching the quaffle seconds before it went through the hoop.

"Nice save Scorpious," Albus exclaimed over the intercom," I mean Malfoy catches the quaffle and dumps it back out to Carrey Montegue. Slytherin team passes it down the field to um their beater. That's weird, um Arcas Crockett with the quaffle, hits it with the bat, Wood dives for the save but he misses. Ten points for Slytherin, that makes it twenty to ten."

The game went on like that for another thirty minutes. Scorpious let three past him, but saved six. Cyrus nailed Wood in the stomach with the quaffle sending him through the hoop with it, making the score forty forty even. It was at this point that some movement started in the sky.

"James has seen the snitch," Albus cried," I mean James Potter has seen it. Luke Derrick dives after him."

In the meantime Gryffindor was coming down the field. Fred Weasley was going to try the bludger thing again. Scorpious looked over slightly panicked as Dominique Weasley wheeled to throw the quaffle through the middle hoop. The bludger was coming at him now. Scorpious didn't know what to do. Then he made a snap decision he was sure to regret later. He jumped. Not to the ground but upwards over the bludger. Without a rider his broom started to fall to the ground leaving Scorpiuos alone in the air. When he came down the quaffle flew right into his out stretched hands. It was a nice save, however he was a little preoccupied with the fast approaching ground to be concerned about it.

"Holy-," Albus was yelling as Scorpious fell, "Geez FRED, DOM, what the crap. Someone catch him."

No one did Scorpious hit the sand painfully the quaffle pressing on his gut. Scorpious heard a loud moan escape his lips as pain eradicated from his side. His best guess was a broken rib. Then someone was by his side pulling the quaffle from his hands.

"Cyrus Bole retrieves the quaffle from Scorpious Malfoy. Um is someone going to help him? Bole goes back up into the sky. Beater, Arcas Crockett hands her the bat and takes up the keeper position. Again Scorpious is injured someone go help him!"

Scorpious turned over letting out another moan. Above him the world zoomed around in a large blur.

"But Professor-" Albus was complaining, "Right well James Potter and Luke Derrick are still chasing the snitch. They're neck and neck. No actually James is ahead of him. Wait what is Bole doing? Bole hits a beater right at- Ouch. And James falls to the ground, that's unfortunate, hope you feel better later Jamesey. With no one there Luke Derrick grabs the snitch and Slytherin wins. Horay quidditch, now someone go help Scorpious."

Scorpious let out a snort that turned into a whine at his friend. In another moment there was eight people standing over him all looking very concerned.

"This is going to hurt," someone said. "Arreglo"

A burning pain radiated in his gut where the quaffle had been. He could hear his own painful sounds in his ear. His vision was getting blotchy. The last words he heard was "He's going to be fine." He was pretty sure the voice belonged to Professor Carter


	9. Chapter 9 Prophecy

Albus stood in the hospital wing next to Scorpius' bedside. He had come to the wing immediately after the game to accompany the injured Scorpius. It was an added bonus that James was also injured in the game. Now not only was he going to be supportive but he also got to laugh as James complained about his various ailments. It was about time his brother got sent to the hospital. Albus had been to Saint Mungos three times, and James always managed to make his physical pain so much worse every time the family came.

"This is the second time this month I've had to be here," Albus complained to Scorpious.

"Its not my fault you needed to be here for Weasley. We could have just left her here to die or whatever," Scorpius shot back.

"Mhm," Albus mumble not wanting to get into it with Scorpius on the Rose issue. His fried was about to say something more when Albus felt a strong hand shove him out of the way. He was actually quite amazed he didn't end up on the floor. Perhaps he was hitting a graceful streak.

Albus turned to see who his attacker was to find the Slytherin quidditch captain occupying the space he was recently standing in. Her face seemed slightly less harsh than normal as she examined Scorpious.

"That was a good save today Malfoy," she told him.

Scorpius' face lit up like a five year old at the compliment, "Thanks," he beamed

"Don't do it again," she scolded sharply. His smile faltered slightly. "You could've lost us the entire game without a keeper."

Scorpius nodded," Sorry," he mumbled.

"Hey look who's showed their ugly face," a jeer came from across the room, "I hear you've got a black pit for a heart eh Bole?"

Cyrus' sharp gaze fell onto James slightly amused, "I'm sorry I don't associate myself with your kind," she sneered.

"What kind is that?" James asked angrily. Fred who had been falling asleep next to James was suddenly awake and getting to his feet.

"The losing kind," Cyrus clicked distastefully.

"I don't think they call it losing when you cheat," Fred retorted.

Cyrus snorted," Everything my team did today was perfectly legal."

"Nailing the other seeker with a bludger just as he is about to beat you hardly seems like fair play," Fred said.

"You are a beater Weasley?" Cyrus asked doubtfully, "I mean you do understand your job is to protect your team from the bludgers because they are after all a part of the game. It is hardly my fault that you weren't doing your job."

Fred clenched his fist. Albus glanced curiously at his brother and cousin. The two were usually pretty easy going, it was rare to ever see them with such outright anger. Even when they were going at it with the Slytherins in their year, nothing was ever so intense.

James' brown eyes fell onto his brother expectantly. Oh god he wanted Albus to take sides. Albus really hated taking sides, he would probably make a good Hufflepuff.

Cyrus' eyes followed James' gaze and a hint of a cruel smile formed on her lips, "Well Potter you going to defend the Gryffindors or are you going to show us that you are actually a Slytherin. Everyone has had some very serious doubts you know," she asked.

Albus looked panicked between his brother, cousin, the overbearing quidditch captain, before landing on Scorpius. His best friends grey eyes were looking sympathetically at him.

"I'm the announcer," Albus replied mechanically, "I promised Neville that I was going to be indifferent. Anywho Slughorn asked me to help him with a thing. I really have got to go."

With that he slipped out of the room and half walked half ran down the hall and away from whatever mess was going on in there. After a moment, when he was at a safe distance away, he let out a loud groan and ran his fingers through his hair.

"Why does everyone have to be so difficult?" he asked no one in particular.

"You seem troubled my child," an old voice asked from out of nowhere. Albus spun to see an ancient woman looking cockeyed at him. On her nose sat giant spectacles that framed her bug eyes. Her long creaky arms were grasping a wooden cane as she hobbled towards him.

"Um hi?" Albus asked confused. He was perfectly aware of who the woman was. Her name was Ms. Trelawny. Apparently years ago she used to teach divinations here. When she retired, McGonnagall had allowed her to stay at the castle until she passed away. The older students always joked about how the woman needed to be sent to Saint Mungo's for the mentally unstable. Personally Albus just tried to avoid her.

The woman was inching closer to him now and he wasn't quite sure how to proceed. Her bug eyes were boring into him full of some odd fascination.

"Y-" she started. Then all of a sudden her hand reached out and grasped his arm tightly. Her bug eyes dialated, getting if possible bigger than they were before. Albus tried to pull away slightly fearful of the woman.

"Ms. Trelawny," he complained," that kind of hurts."

The woman didn't respond she just stared. A sudden intake of air wheezed into the woman's lungs. "_He has struck back,"_ she cried in an airily deep voice that couldn't have belonged to the woman. "_The future is left uncertain…The two realms are merging …A legend's son must return to the place of the Black death which came from the fifth… Demidium Mortus will rise again… At the end of their second year it will come… They must prepare for him… as he is their last hope and they are his… They must be warned… Death Approaches"_

The woman's eyes rolled back into her head as she took a final sharp intake of breath. The grip she had on his arm seemed to melt away as Trelawney collapsed into a broken heap.

"Ms. Trelawney?" Albus asked unsure of himself. He took a hesitant step towards her unconscious body. If he didn't know any better he might think she was dead…

Albus felt the color drain from his face. He needed to find someone. He took an instinctive step away from the woman before taking off down the hallway. Where was he anyway? Good god he needed to find someone anyone. His eyes scanned the blur of classrooms that he passed as he sprinted down the hallway.

"Albus?" a voice asked curiously as he turned the corner. Albus looked up to see Professor Carter peering down at him.

"Its Ms. Trelawney," Albus started," Something is wrong."

"What's wrong," the man asked uncertainly. Albus didn't pause to explain, instead he just grabbed Carter's arm and dragged him down the hall towards his original position.

When he saw Trelawney an understanding look passed over his eyes. Without another word he dropped to a knee and started searching for a pulse. After a moment he bit his lip and pointed his wand at her heart.

"Corizarus Audiomentre" he said. A piercing sound filled the room. Albus felt his heart drop. He had heard this sound once before in a muggle movie he watched with Grandpa Arthur. He believed their term for it was dead lining.

Professor Carter wasn't fazed by the lack of a heartbeat. His stone serious face kept its position as he continued his work "Defribulatum." He said. There was a sound of a shock and Trelawney's body twitched slightly. Albus turned around his stomach doing a flip inside of him.

The dead lining sound continued

"Defribulatum"

Another shock.

The dead lining sound continued.

"Defribulatum"

Another third shock came and still no change. Albus knew there wouldn't be. Instead the room seemingly would forever be filled with that god awful even piercing beep.


	10. Chapter 10 Discussions

Albus sat in Professor McGonnagall's office alone and silent. His face had lost its color about an hour ago and hadn't yet returned. Events were playing over and over in his head as he fidgeted uncomfortably in the chair.

Everything was organized in a reasonable and businesslike manner. Not a quill was out of place on her desk. On the wall hung a slew of portraits. In each frame was a previous headmaster and at the moment they all seemed to be staring at Albus. It was quite unsettling. He sat there another fifteen minutes, sweating it out before someone finally decided to speak.

"Hello," an old man Albus recognized to be Dumbledore said.

"I thought we agreed we weren't talking to students anymore Albus," another portrait groaned.

"I was simply giving a greeting Vulpis,"Dumbledore said brushing his friend's retort off. "What is your name?"

"Um Albus."

Dumbledore's eyes lit up," That is quite a coincidence you see my name is Albus too."

Albus shifted again, talking to dead people was strange, "It's not a coincidence sir," he said boldly.

The old man's head tilted slightly in curiosity, "And why would that be?"

"I was named after you," Albus explained.

"I'm tickled pink," Dumbledore said his eyes sparkling behind his spectacles, "Who are your parents?"

"Harry and Ginny Potter," Albus replied.

"Harry?" Dumbledore said, he sounded genuinely touched and surprised by the sentiment.

"Yes that explains what he is doing in the office," the portrait next to Dumbledore replied distastefully. Albus knew who this man was immediately.

"You're Snape," Albus said bluntly.

"How very observant of you Potter," Snape sneered.

"Don't be rude Severus," Dumbledore chastised.

"Perhaps your right," Snape muttered, "It must be that he is a Gryffindor that motivated his troublemaking. Clearly it hasn't any connection to his parentage."

"I'm not in Gryffindor," Albus piped immediately.

Snape's eyebrows raised amused," A Hufflepuff then?"

"I'm a Slytherin," Albus said holding his tie up proudly.

Snape's features hardened as he stared at the boy with pursed lips.

Dumbledore let out a loud laugh, "It seems Minerva has been keeping us out of the loop Severus."

"Why are you here," another portrait asked. The witch in this portrait looked unamused by the banter going on between the three. In fact she looked out right bored.

Albus felt his face going white as things were being brought up. He preferred them before they started talking. Thankfully another voice answered for him, "I'm afraid Sybill has passed away," McGonagall said from the entryway. All of the portraits fell silent

"Mr. Potter found her and got Adamus," McGonagall continued, "There was nothing that could be done."

"If Adamus couldn't do anything…" Dumbledore mumbled distantly.

"He said that she had been dead when he got on the scene. If he couldn't do anything no one could," McGonagall muttered. She looked exhausted as her eyes clouded.

"Is Mr. Carter a doctor or something," Albus asked curiously.

McGonagall nodded, "He worked on his own creating new medicines and treatment techniques," she explained softly. She shook her head and brought herself back to the present glancing at Albus. "Would you please recount your evening?" she asked.

Albus nodded," I as in the hospital wing because Scorpius was hurt. I left cause James was starting to fight with the Slytherin captain and I didn't want them to pull me into it. I was walking in the hallway when Ms. Trelawny saw me. She grabbed my arm and well she had a heart attack or something. I ran to get someone and I found Professor Carter."

McGonagall pursed her lips into two thin white lines, "She didn't say anything to you first."

Albus shook his head. He knew she was talking about the prophecy, but he didn't want to tell her. It was meant for his ears and his ears, not hers. He was sure of it.

"You are positive," McGonagall asked, it didn't look like she believed him.

Albus nodded. "I think he would have noticed if she made one Minerva," one of the portraits said.

"You never know with Potters," Snape muttered," They are quite dense."

"You may go then," she paused, "If I learn that you are lying to me Albus Severus Potter. You will regret it."

Albus hurried out of the room before a coherent thought could pass through the wide eyed Snape.

"This is the entire thing?" Rose asked, her blue eyes examining a piece of paper thoughtfully.

"Yup," Albus said, "I'm positive."

The paper read:

He has struck back

The future is left uncertain

The two realms are merging

A legend's son must return to the place of the Black Death

The one which came from the fifth

Demidium Mortus will rise again

A year's deadline

The world must prepare

Death Approaches

"It's strange don't you think," Rose pondered.

Albus shrugged, "A strange woman grabs my arm, starts spewing words about death, than keels over and dies, I think it's fair to say everything about yesterday was strange."

Rose rolled her eyes, "I mean the prophecy. It's not very much of a prophecy."

"What do you mean," Albus asked very confused.

"A prophecy should predict the future in a concrete manner," Rose said spewing words from a text books. "This prophecy goes out and says the future is uncertain. If you look at your dad's prophecy it is open ended but it is in open ended in a concrete way. Everything it said was going to happen. It just never identified who would win. Does that make sense?"

"Sure," Albus replied, "You know what any of it might mean.

Rose paused and examined the paper for another moment. "I think you must be the legends son," she said. Albus nodded and bit his lip, "The Black Death is the name of a plaugue that went through Europe in the year 1310. It might be that, but that doesn't exactly narrow down a specific place. Whatever it is its happening on a year's deadline."

Albus nodded, "That's really not that helpful."

Rose smiled," You want to try to decipher it?"

"Maybe not," Albus frowned, "What's a demidium mortis?"

"No idea," Rose replied. Albus let out a deep sigh.

"It couldn't just be straight forward could it," he complained.

"I'll look into some of it more later ok," she said standing up.

"Where are you going?" Albus asked curiously.

"I have practice with Molly," Rose called over her shoulder, "Go find Malfoy or something."

Albus sighed and watched her leave, maybe asking Scorpius would be helpful. Albus got up and walked hurriedly towards the hospital wing. James had gotten out this morning, so they should be able to get some privacy.

When Albus got there he found Scorpius' bed surrounded with so much stuff at first he couldn't even see his friend behind the piles of flowers and candy and knickknacks.

"Hey Al," Scorpius beamed tossing an unopened chocolate frog at him, "How's it going?"

"Where did all this stuff come from?" Albus gawked.

"I'm the star keeper now Al," Scorpius grinned.

Albus just shook his head in disbelief. "You hear about Ms. Trelawney?"

Scorpius' face got serious suddenly, "Yeah you ok?"

"I'm fine," Albus reassured him," She made a prophecy before she… you know" Albus handed him the paper with the prophecy scratched on it. Scorpius' grey eyes scanned it quickly.

"I bet you're the legend's son," he said after a moment.

Albus nodded, "That's what Rose said," he muttered.

"You showed this to Weasley?" Scorpius asked unhappily.

Albus nodded, "You two are both geniuses and it can't hurt to have both of you look at it, so deal. Anyway Rose actually recommended that I show it to you," he snapped.

Scorpius shrugged, he didn't look any happier about Rose's involvement, but at least he stopped complaining. "The Black Death might be the plaugue," he said thoughtfully.

Albus hid a small grin, "Rose said that too."

Scorpius scowled," Yes isn't she just so smart," he said bitterly, "she know what demidium mortis means?" Albus shook his head triggering Scorpius' smile. "It's Latin for half dead."

"The half dead will rise again?" Albus muttered. "That's a happy thought."

"What's interesting is that it says again," Scorpius replied," Like it's happened before. Did you tell McGonagall about this?"

"I kinda lied and told her there wasn't a prophecy," Albus whispered. Madame Pomefrey couldn't over hear him.

"M'kay," Scorpius said, "It's probably best that way."

"Really?" Albus said surprised. Rose had yelled at him about lying earlier.

"If they knew that there was a prophecy about you they would have you on lockdown," Scorpius said.

The two sat in silence for a moment. "Open your chocolate frog card," Scorpius demanded changing the subject.

Albus sighed and unwrapped the frog, eating it before it got a good jump in. "Cadamus Peverell," he read aloud. "Suspected creator of the resurrection stone. He and his two brothers each crafted one of the deathly hallows. Entered into the Fog Cards after the hallows existence was proven after the second wizarding war. He is the middle brother in the short story 'The Tale of the Three Brothers' part of The Tales of Beedles Bard story collection."

Albus examined the sketch of Cadamus carefully. The card was created after his death so they couldn't put an actual picture on the card. The man had light brown hair with hazel eyes. Around his neck hung a symbol of a triangle with a circle inside of it and a line down the middle. The man was wearing large toothy grin proudly on his gaunt face. Then the strangest thing happened. He winked.


	11. Chapter 11 Sirius Black

"Why do I have to sleep with her," Rose whined.

"Because I said so," Aunt Hermione snapped.

Albus let out a small snicker. "Sucks for you," he muttered under his breath. He felt Rose's foot pelt him from the seat next to him.

"Behave," Ginny, Albus' mom, chided.

"Yes children behave," James mimicked.

Albus shot his brother an annoyed glance. This was going to be a long holiday. He still couldn't believe Christmas had arrived so soon. The past month had been a blur of work. Whether it be working to decipher the prophecy, or finishing school work he always seemed to be at work.

"At least you don't have to room with two other people," Albus said, "It's just going to be you and Molly."

"Yes but Molly might as well be sixteen people," Rose complained.

"I don't want to hear it," Aunt Hermione said, "You just got off the train ten minutes ago and all I've heard is whining."

"Sorry mom," Rose muttered.

"Remember to congratulate Teddy and Victorie when we land," Ginny said changing the subject

"Yes be sure to thank them for getting your room moved," James mumbled under his breath. Luckily neither of the women in the front seat of the car had heard him. Albus and Rose had gotten off the train earlier to the news of Teddy's engagement. Personally, Albus thought it was about time; however, Grandma and Grandpa had thought it would be a good idea for them to have a room to themselves over Christmas. That meant some new sleeping arrangements. Rose was the unlucky sucker to get stuck with Molly. Not that Albus' new room was any better. Usually it was just him and James. Now it was going to be him James and Fred. He was probably going to be returning to Hogwarts with a head injury.

Albus sighed and looked out the car window. At the moment they were passing over a wide span of farm land. They were getting pretty close to the burrow now, probably only another five minutes.

"So are you three going to tell me about school or not," Aunt Hermione asked. They proceeded to give their mothers the brief summary of their daily lives, or at least the notable parts of their daily lives. They were interrupted by their arrival after another moment or two.

Aunt Hermione brought the car down to a smooth landing in the garage/ broom storage room. Lily and Hugo were waiting just outside the building.

"Hey dad and Uncle Ron are inside with everyone else," Lily said when they came out. She led them into the main house all the while talking about all the stuff he and James had missed while they were away.

The living room was overly crowded at the moment. Harry, Uncle Ron, and Uncle Percy were all talking behind the couch. On the couch sat Fred, Roxanne, and Lucy. In front of the couch on the floor sat Molly and Louis chatting about school. Teddy(his hair was blue at the moment) and Victorie were sitting in the love seat while Uncle Bill squinted at them from across the room(he looked a little constipated). Aunt Fleur was talking at Uncle Bill although he was far too busy staring to actually be listening. Aunt Audrey and Aunt Angelina were talking about babies with Hannah (the Longbottems were spending Christmas here). Uncle George was showing Neville something in his hand(probably a new prototype from the store). Grandpa Arthur was going through a box with Grandma Molly. And Uncle Charlie was well missing in action.

"We're here," Ginny announced.

Uncle Ron and Harry were the first to come over and give them their token greetings. That is to say Uncle Ron gave Rosie a huge bear hug and Harry managed to lift his third year and second year boys both off the ground- one in each arm.

"I swear I thought they were taller in real life," Uncle George muttered from the back of the room jokingly. Albus rolled his eyes as he wormed his way out of his father's grasp.

"You'd think we died," James muttered before slipping over to the couch to join Fred.

Rose and Albus exchanged glances, "Chess?" she asked hopefully. Albus sighed deeply as he and Rose went over to their usual spot to start their first round of wizard chess.

"Knight to D3," Rose said to start them out," so you think you should tell your dad about the prophecy?" she asked in a hushed whisper.

Albus shook his head," pawn to H5, no it would only get them all worried," he said.

Rose glanced back over her shoulder at their fathers who had returned to their conversation with Uncle Percy. Harry had a familiar crease between his eyebrows. The disappearances must not have stopped because something was clearly bothering him. They each made a few more moves before one talked again.

"We have to figure something out," Rose said, "We've been working on it for months and we've got nothing."

Albus shrugged," Maybe its just supposed to come with time or something."

Rose sighed and bit her lip as she moved her queen over taking Albus' castle. From the way her eyes were squinted Albus knew she was deep in thought. He pushed his glasses up his nose and made another move on the chess board. By now he could already tell Rose was going to win as she had twice as many pieces as him.

"Hey Rosie, hey Al," a voice said to their Albus' left. Albus glanced over to find Hugo taking a seat.

"Sup," Albus asked nonchalantly. He hadn't seen his younger cousin in a while now. The last time they had been together was during Al's trip to get his books in diagon alley. Although that was a long time he couldn't believe how much Hugo's appearance had changed in that time. Specifically how much his hair had changed. It was buzzed over the summer, but now it sat on his head in a giant red curly fro-like mess. A relatively small mouse could be living in there and you would never know.

"Lily went out to the supermarket with Grandma," Hugo said in explanation of his sudden appearance.

"You didn't want to go too?" Rose asked," I'm sure Grandma would've let you come."

"Lucy and Roxy were going too," Hugo explained, "I mean I could've gone but…"

Albus nodded, "Yeah I would've passed too," he sympathized. Lily wasn't exactly the girliest person in the world that was why she got along so well with Hugo. Roxy and Lucy were a 360 from Albus' sister. They constantly giggled and gossiped about things only a girl would care about. They were every ten year old boy's nightmare.

"Hey Al move your pawn to C4," Hugo said after a moment.

"Pawn to C4," Albus said taking Hugo's word for it immediately.

Rose shot her brother an annoyed look but didn't say anything, "Queen to A1, check."

Albus looked again to Hugo. His brown eyes were examining the board with a careful concentration, "Move your knight."

"Knight to A2," Albus said.

Rose paused. Only now did Albus see what Hugo just did. If Rose moved her queen into Albus' knight he would take her queen with his castle which was situated at C2. "Oh," Albus said with mild surprise," That was good."

Hugo grinned widely displaying several gaps in his teeth where adult teeth were budding. Rose bit her lip frustrated, "Hugo why don't you go bother James or Fred or someone," she muttered.

"Cause I don't want to end up on stuck to the ceiling again like last year," Hugo shot back.

"Yes that would be unfortunate," James shouted from across the room, he must have been eavesdropping. Albus twisted around to look towards his brother. He couldn't see him though as his mother was standing with in the way rummaging through her purse. Her arm was currently completely submerged in it though, it must be charmed or something.

"Honey did you pack Lucy's present?" Ginny asked after another moment.

Harry gave her a deer in the headlights look," Sorry," he said. "I'll go get it now." Harry's eyes fell on James for a moment before thinking better of it. "Albus you want to come with me?"

Albus looked over at the chess board momentarily. It wasn't like he was even making his own moves anymore, "Sure Dad," he said, "Hugo take over for me."

Rose gave her brother a mischievous smile," You're on," she challenged. Albus stood up and ran over to his father.

"We'll talk later," Harry said to Uncle Ron quickly before grabbing his son's hand. Albus felt the familiar feeling of being crammed into an unrealistically small tube. After a moment the pressure stopped and he found that he was standing in front of his home in Godric's Hollow. After another moment he found he was laying on the ground in front of his house in Godric's Hollow.

"You're supposed to warn me before we apparate," Albus complained rubbing his side that he landed on.

"Sorry," Harry said. Clearly it wasn't genuine as his father was laughing loudly at his son. Harry reached down and pulled Albus off the ground. "I forgot you aren't coordinated," Harry teased.

Albus shot his father a look.

"Right so how's school been," Harry asked changing the subject.

"Okay," Albus said, "A lot of work that's all. Scorpius has been tutoring me in Defense class and Rose has got me in Charms though so I'm good."

Harry nodded, "I got a letter from Professor Slughorn ranting about how impressive you are in potions." He said

Albus felt his cheeks turning red, "Yeah that's my best class. Rose and Scorpius are still better at it though."

Harry snorted," You know Slughorn, you're Harry Potter's son, and Lily Evan's granddaughter and on top of that you're in his house. You could be the worst in the class and still be his favorite."

Albus shrugged, "He's been dropping subtle hints about how he wants me to be in Slug club next year for the past few months."

Harry smiled nostalgically, "You should go to those. There not fun, trust me, but he'll write you a sparkling recommendation if you want to get into graduate school or if you want to get a decent job. A lot of people respect Slughorn a lot you know."

Albus rolled his eyes," I know you told me over the summer like three hundred times," he complained.

"Did I?" Harry said with a small smile. The two of them walked into the house. Albus drank in every detail of it. As much as Hogwarts was like a second home to him the reality was that this would always be home. The creak of the floor boards the, smell of cooking spices, the ugly green paint that Ginny wanted desperately to get rid of but hasn't yet, this was what home was.

"I'm going to go run and get the present," Harry said walking up the stairs towards the bedrooms, "be right back."

"Kay," Albus said. He walked down the hall slowly taking in all the pictures for the millionth time as he waited for his father to grab the gift.

The front hall of his house was something very similar to a shrine to the second wizarding war. All the people his dad and mom knew who died held a lace on their wall. Albus paused a moment to look at Sirius Black halfway down the hall.

This picture looked different when he came upon it. It took him a moment to pinpoint exactly what it was but after a moment he got it. His beard was more trimmed in the picture than usual. He could have sworn that it was more ragged. This small alteration in the picture made Sirius look more well put together but the change was strange. It was a picture it didn't just leave one day and come back with a haircut.

"What are you staring at," the picture inquired after a moment.

Albus did a double take, "Did you just talk?" he asked dumbfounded. A normal wizard picture could only talk if charmed by the person the picture was of. These pictures were all printed posthumous. None of them talked before and none of them should be talking now.

Sirius nodded drawing his eyebrows together, "Yes don't most people talk?" he asked confused. Sirius' eyes traveled up gazing at the wall behind Albus to the picture of Remus Lupin, "Can you believe this kid Remus. Thinks we can't talk" Sirius snorted in amusement.

Albus just continued to stare. Remus of course didn't respond as he shouldn't. "He can't talk either," Albus told Sirius, "he's a picture like you."

Sirius stared at Albus, "Am not," he declared. Albus just stared at him for another moment. Sirius moved his hand forward as if trying to touch Albus. That would prove he wasn't a picture for sure, except that he was a picture and he didn't touch Albus.

"That's strange," Sirius mused.

"You are a picture," Albus repeated, "a photograph if you want me to be specific."

"And who do you think you are?" Sirius demanded.

"I'm Albus Potter," Albus said slightly less harshly.

Sirius lost his high horse demeanor immediately, "Harry's son?" he asked. Albus nodded and Sirius broke out into a wide grin. "Well then nice to meet you. I imaging you were named after Dumbledore."

Albus nodded, "and Severus Snape. My middle name is Severus," Albus explained.

Sirius frowned slightly, "He named you after Snivilous lord of large noses?" he asked sounding a little disappointed.

Albus bit his lip a little uncomfortable and nodded, "He named my older brother after you. James Sirius Potter."

Sirius' grin returned, "Did he?" he asked with a pride heavy voice.

Albus squinted at Sirius Black for another moment. This was really weird. "You want to just talk to my dad?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer he shouted, "Hey dad Sirius Black's portrait is talking."

There was a loud thudding noise of feet on the stairs as Harry sped into the hallway, "What?" he demanded immediately.

"Sirius Black's portrait is talking," Albus repeated nodding towards the picture.

Harry's eyes darted to the picture and waited a moment for it to speak. Silence filled the air. Albus looked back over at the portrait to find the rugged version of Sirius Black back in its place. The man in the picture was smiling the way he always did but made no sign of speech.

"Maybe you were just hearing things," Harry muttered.

Albus shook his head, "I swear it was speaking," Albus said quickly.

Harry eyed his son worriedly, "Come on I found the present let's get back to the party."

With that Harry reached down and took Albus' hand. The familiar pressure of apparition pressed around Albus as they returned to The Burrow.


	12. Chapter 12 Slytherin vs Ravenclaw

Albus unpacked all of his loot that he gained over the break pushing socks into drawers, filing his new chocolate frog cards in alphabetical order in his box, and delicately pushing the prank kit under his bed where it would no doubt start gathering dust. They had gotten back Friday night and he hadn't finished putting everything away yet. Of course these presents weren't even noteworthy when compared to what Teddy had gotten him. Albus pulled the long silky robe out of his trunk and paused just to look at it. It was a quidditch robe like one the actual players would use. Where a normal robe would be blue, red, green, or yellow, his was black. On the back was the number seven, as seven was supposed to be a powerful number, in green type in honor of his own house. Written above the number also in matching green type were the words 'The Announcer'. The crest on his chest was the standard Hogwarts one and the inside of the robes were silver. If the only thing you took in was these parts it would've been easy to mistake him for a Slytherin player, but there were other snippets of color incorporated beautifully in the uniform. It came with a pair of gloves that had a red lining sticking out at the bottom like a Gryffindor, the scarf that came with it was blue like one a Ravenclaw would wear, and the warm boots he would wear were stitched together with yellow string for Hufflepuff. It might not sound like it would blend well with the rainbow of colors, but Albus suspected Victorie designed it so naturally it all matched in a phenomenally odd way. It was arguably the best gift he had ever gotten.

Someone let out a low whistle from behind him and he spun to give Scorpius a large grin, "You're like all official now," his friend said.

"Yup," Albus chirped happily, "so how was your break?"

Scorpius shrugged, "Understated," he replied, "We had a small day with just me and my parents."

Albus laughed. He couldn't even imagine a Christmas with so little people involved. "You're lucky," he told Scorpius after a moment's deliberation. "I had to share a room with James and Fred. The drugged the toothpaste in the bathroom to make you puke slugs. It was some product they found in my Uncle George's shop. Apparently it was inspired by something my Uncle Ron screwed up when they were kids."

Scorpius snorted and shook his head, "That's unfortunate," he sympathized.

"Yeah," Albus mumbled with a grimace.

"Well you ready to break your robe in?" Scorpius asked.

"Yup," he replied with a wide grin, "They say that the back from break game is the best one of the year you know."

"Really?" Scorpius said with mock surprise. "I think it's going to be quite boring you know when Ravenclaw can't seem to score. I imagine that the game will be out of reach with in the first twenty minutes."

Albus rolled his eyes, "You tell Rose that."

Rose gripped her broom tightly in the Ravenclaw locker room her mind playing and replaying all the possibilities for the match ahead.

"Remember," Emmitt was saying for the umpteenth time, "Slytherin is going to bend the rules."

"So you need to make sure your head is in the game," Hunter mocked with a laugh. Emmitt shot his co-beater a dirty look.

Rose glanced over at Max he was wearing the cocky but serious look as he stared blankly at the bristles of the broom he was holding. He was her quidditch buddy as they both were second years and thus the two youngest players on the team they had found some camaraderie. Their friendship even extended into school life as they were partners on some projects together. When he noticed her gaze he shot her a small smile. You ready he was asking silently. Rose gave him a slight nod and he resumed his pregame zoning out session.

Rose looked over to see what Molly was doing to find predictably that she was staring at Emmitt. She wondered briefly if Molly even realized that she was constantly staring at their captain like he was a piece of meat. Emmitt of course was far too busy rubbing his bat down in his own pregame ritual. Rose sighed and proceeded to put her curls up in a meticulous pony tail. Finally after what seemed like ages Emmitt clapped his hand together in a wordless signal. The team stood and mounted their brooms before zooming out into the pitch.

The Slytherin team met them in the middle. Rose floated silently sizing up each of their players. In the center was their captain, Cyrus Bole. Her blue eyes were lit up like fire as she stared bullets into Emmitt. This was Ravenclaw's first match against Slytherin and Rose could feel a knot of nervousness forming in her stomach. Bole's aggressive play was legendary. Rose forced herself to continue to examine the rest of the team. Her eyes passed over each player taking metal notes on each.

Their seeker, Luke Derrick, was wearing a cocky grin of confidence as he winked at Cara Stretton, Ravenclaw's seeker. Cara's clenched her jaw in annoyance at the other seeker's gesture. Rose smiled smugly, as much as she didn't like the Slytherin team she hated Stretton's arrogance.

Their two beaters were looking kind of nervous. She didn't know their names off the top of her head but she knew they were fourth years. Emmitt and Hunter practically looked like adults and their clear size advantage was throwing the two Slytherin boys. Rose took a passing note of Slytherin's other two chasers although she knew they weren't going to be the problem, Bole was. Finally her eyes settled onto Malfoy. His blonde hair was billowing in the wind as his grey eyes met hers. He must have been eyeing her for a minute or two now because it seemed like he had already been looking at her for a moment when she met gaze. He didn't look away instead the two floated staring daggers into each other as Professor Longbottem released the snitch below them. Malfoy nodded his head slightly to her in acknowledgement. She felt her mouth form into the smallest of smiles, the competition was on.

Neville tossed the quaffle into the air and Bole rushed forward to grab it. Max, Molly, and she had expected as much as they all immediately rushed back into defensive positions. Bole had broken a Hufflepuff chaser's leg on the toss in their last game and they had agreed it wasn't worth getting hurt within the first minutes just to get first possession.

"And Ravenclaw just let Cyrus Bole take the quaffle," Albus' voice announced, "She swerves to the right around Hunter Samuels and throws the quaffle…"

Rose watched as the quaffle bulleted towards the goal. She was the closest one to it right now, she could stop it. She could hear the air flowing past her ears as she dove after it intercepting it a few feet before it fell into Lane, their keeper's, hands.

"Rose," she heard Max cry as she weaved around Bole who was still slowing herself down after her charge. Rose threw the round red ball a few feet ahead of him and he caught it with grace. They proceeded to execute their offence with perfect precision. It was based on a drill called the three man weave used in a muggle game. If she remembered correctly Grandpa Arthur had referred to the muggle sport as basketball.

"Molls," Rose called. Scorpius was leaning towards the right post right now; if Molly shot it would be saved. Luckily, she did toss it over to Rose. Once in her hands she beamed the ball as fast as possible at the left goal. Scorpius dived for it to no avail as it soared through the round post.

"And Rose Weasley scores," Albus called, "Score's 10 zip Ravenclaw."

Rose wheeled around speeding back to the other half of the pitch. One of the Slytherin chasers was already on their heels with the quaffle and if they didn't turn around soon…

"Carrey Montegue puts up the shot," Albus narrated, "Oh and Helen Lane misses the save. We're all tied up now 10-10."

Rose cursed inwardly as Max retrieved the quaffle and they started up with their offense again.

In the corner of her mind she could hear Albus saying something but she wasn't paying much attention. All that mattered at the moment was getting the quaffle through one of the hoops

"What is Bole doing?" Albus' asked no one in particular, "She looks like she's landing in the crowd. Look she's coming back, what's she have in her hand? She's throwing something… Oh my- Molly look out for-"

The paint popper exploded on contact with the chaser covering her in a thick green liquid. To her credit she didn't fall off her broom when it collided with her, she only dropped the quaffle. Bole proceeded to grab it and fly towards the goal. Rose paused she didn't know what to do Molly looked furious in her now green outfit, but it looked like she would live.

"Isn't that illegal?" Emmitt shouted furiously down at Neville who just shrugged.

"Goal for Slytherin," Albus said," 10-20."

"Hunter," Molly screeched, "If you don't start using that bat…"

Hunter let out a laugh, "On it," he said diving around towards one of the bludgers. In the meantime Rose and Max started running their offense without Molly who was currently trying to unstick her arm from her side (the paint in the paint poppers was sticky). Unfortunately it was to little avail as Scorpius saved goal after goal after goal. They needed a third man, two was too predictable.

"Slytherin is starting to get a big lead 20-70," Albus was saying, "Ravenclaw better hope Cara Stretton finds the snitch soon."

At that moment there was the sound of something splintering Rose wheeled to see the bludger zooming towards Leda Warrington. Hunter was wearing a huge grin on his face as he watched it collide with the tip of her broom, snapping it down the middle.

"Jeez Leda are you all right?" Albus asked. Rose smiled to herself, when he announced Albus did this thing where he talked to people like they were right next to him not a soaring a few hundred feet above him or in this case about fifty yards in front of him.

Emmitt proceeded to toss his bat to Hunter. "Rose, Max, I'm going to be substitute chaser for a little while. Molls hurry up and get that stuff cleaned up. You have a wand don't you."

With Emmitt working with them they managed to close the gap and by the time Molly got back they were only down by 20. It was frustrating though. No matter how much she hated to admit it Malfoy knew what he was doing.

"Em," was all Molly had to say to get Emmitt back to his position. Rose looked over; Molly was by no means clean. The right side of her face had green paint plastered to it and it was matted in her hair, but she did have the full range of motion in her arms so she was good as new in the quidditch books.

Molly's return didn't have the effect that they had hoped it would, Bole was sill killing them. Even Albus was having a hard time keeping up with her. "Bole scores, now its 100-70 Slytherin. Oh wait my bad its 110-70 Slytherin. Oh wait Bole just scored again now its 130-70 Slytherin," Albus announced.

Rose let out a quiet shriek of frustration, "Stretton hurry up," she yelled up to their seeker.

Cara scowled, "I'll do my job if you could remember how to do yours," she yelled back.

"Cara, Rose if you two don't shut up I'm going to have you both sit out against Gryffindor next week," Emmitt intervened. They shut up.

"Luke Derrick's spotted the snitch," Albus shouted.

Rose looked up to see the 7th year diving down gracefully after the snitch. His face was lit up with the biggest grin as he dove. Rose turned; she had to pay attention to the game. Max was rushing Scorpius at the moment.

"Rose, Molls, give me eight," he yelled.

Molly and Rose flew in a figure eight behind him so that they both ended up flanking him. Max tossed the quaffle over to Molly and pulled up on his broom so that he ascended above the other two. Molly charged moving straight at Scorpius who stood his ground in the center of the middle hoop. At the last moment right before she hit him she dumped the quaffle off to Rose and swerved to her right, simultaneously blocking Scorpius' path to the goal and dodging a collision with him. All that it took after that was a light toss into it to give them another ten points.

"Rose with the goal 110- 80 Slytherin," Albus called out. "Cara Stretton looks like she's having some trouble up there as Derrick just gave her a pretty good shove… Please try not to hurt anyone."

Rose looked up to see Cara trailing a few feet behind the Slytherin keeper. Her lips looked like they were set in a deep pout as she went on. Even with the noise of the wind billowing by her ears she still thought she could hear Derrick's laugh ringing in the stadium.

"Hunter," Emmitt yelled, "the seekers."

Both beaters reacted at the same time. They moved through the air with a swiftness that can't be learned with practice. Nothing more than natural talent could be responsible for their grace. One with the bat in his left hand and the other with it in the right flipped around so that they were flanking Derrick. The Slytherin smiled at them welcoming the challenge. Derrick suddenly went into a steep climb rising in pursuit of the snitch. After a moment, when they had reached the peak of his climb he did something no sane human would ever consider doing. At a thousand feet in the air with nothing but a broom keeping him afloat, the boy jumped. His broom still up in the air he positioned himself into a swan dive. Several shrieks rose up in the audience as he plummeted.

"WHAT THE- ARE YOU INSANE?" Albus yelled at him.

The game itself ceased as the chasers, keepers and beaters all turned to watch. Emmitt's gruff features displayed utter shock at his classmate's actions. Derrick wasn't he least bit concerned his robes billowing behind him and his brown hair blown straight up. He broke his form about half way down moving one arm out for what appeared to be balance purposes. His other hand stretched out to grab the snitch. Everyone watched as the yellow spec disappeared into his palm.

Now he shifted positions again making himself horizontal with the ground as his robes flew out so that he vaguely resembled a bat. Cyrus Bole set in motion flying around so that he could grasp her broom with his free hand. His momentum mad her broom jerked as his hand gripped it. She managed to keep it steady though as he swung around like a gymnast and landed upright in the seated position just in front of her. His grinned wildly as he held the snitch up in his left hand for the world to seen.

"Slytherin gets the snitch," Albus said in a quiet voice of disbelief. Then the crowd erupted. The entire Slytherin section was on their feet chanting the name Luke like he was a god. Bole looked relatively pissed as she lowered them both on the ground. Rose exchanged a look with Max. There was nothing they could do about the clear superiority of the other team's seeker.

She looked up Scorpius was looking at her again. His remarkably annoying face displayed the most arrogant grin she'd ever seen. She scowled at him.

On the ground Derrick had an arm slung casually around his captain. Her face was set in a hard rock of indifference. Derrick was clearly rubbing her the wrong way at the moment but they had won so she was tolerating him. Max pulled his broom up next to hers and nodded towards the locker room. She sighed and followed him. There was no need to sit here and watch Slytherin bask in their glory.


	13. Chapter 13 Tutoring Session

"Please Neville there has to be something I can do," Albus asked feeling the dread weigh heavy on his gut, "If I don't get my grade up my mom will kill me."

"First off I'm Professor Longbottem here Albus and second there isn't anything I can do. You need to earn the O I can't just give it to you," Neville said.

"There isn't anything?" Albus asked again, "I mean it's not like I try to do bad it just happens."

"Do you have a tutor?" Neville inquired.

Albus nodded, "Two and neither are making things any better," he said referring to Rose and Scorpius. Whenever Rose tried to help him she got all bossy telling him to do spells rather than teaching him how to.

Scorpius was the opposite end of the spectrum. He was too patient with Albus. They would sit there for hours while Albus tried over and over again to get it right. When Albus asked how to do it though, Scorpius wouldn't have a good response. Usually he got a decent "It'll just come to you. Now why don't you try it again?"

"Why don't you come visit me after classes today? I'm giving another girl some private lessons too," Neville offered.

"Sure why not," Albus mumbled although he doubted there was any chance at him getting better.

"I will see you tonight then," Neville said with a small smile.

"See you later Neville," Albus said turning to leave.

"It's Professor Longbottem," Neville called after him, but it didn't matter Albus was already out of the room and going to Lunch. When he got there Scorpius was sitting with his quidditch buddies. It was becoming a more common occurrence with each win Slytherin stacked. Albus didn't actually mind that much, it was better than sitting with Cato and company. Anyways he was like an honorary member of the team being the announcer and all.

"Hey Albus," Scorpius said when he sat down, "How's Professor Longbottem?"

"The same," Albus muttered, "I'm going to fail Defense Against the Dark Arts. Uh I can hear it now, the son of the man who smoked the dark lord can't hex a fly."

"I'd imagine hexing a fly would be very difficult," Scorpius mused with a grin.

Albus rolled his eyes, "You know what I mean can't hurt a fly can't hex a fly same thing."

"You know your brother is failing Defense Against the Dark Arts," Carrey Montegue informed him from across the table.

Albus almost asked her how she knew before he remembered she was a third year like James. "That's different. He does this thing called selective success. He can do all the spells and stuff, in fact he is brilliant with the spell part, he just refuses to do the essays and homework and stuff," Albus explained.

"I don't know he's a little dense. Are you sure that he's not just telling you that?" Carrey said with a grin. As unreasonable as it may sound, that comment made Albus' day.

"Clearly you've never been a victim," Albus replied, "You'll rethink that after you've been on the receiving end of his stinging jinx."

It was at this point that Luke Derrick came strolling in. You can't miss the guy's presence as recently wherever he went his house mates were shouting "We have a jumper". When he walked into the Great Hall today he made a beeline for the quidditch corner. He shoved himself between Arcas and Brian (who were having an in depth conversation about some Hufflepuff girls they were planning on asking out) so that he was sure to have all of their attention.

"Guess who's got a date to prom," he said in a low whisper.

"I'll take a wild guess and say it's you," Carrey said sarcastically.

"Not yet but in two weeks' time I will," he said proudly

"So you came here to tell us that you are going to ask a girl out in two weeks," Brian said doubtfully.

"Not just any girl," he said with a mischievous cocky grin. "I'm going to ask out Cyrus."

"Good lord he's suicidal," Arcas cried.

"I knew something was wrong when he jumped of the broom but this takes things to a whole new level," Scorpius said.

Luke rolled his eyes, "When she says yes and dresses up all girly and such I'm going to laugh in all of your faces," he said.

"Except she's going to say no," Brian said.

"She never says no to me," Luke shot back.

"It's true she doesn't," Carrey said.

Luke pointed towards Carrey with his thumb, "See she thinks it will work out."

Scorpius looked down at the watch he was wearing, "Hey Al we've got to go," he said. Albus stood up and the two went off to Herbology chatting about all the different things that scared them about Cyrus. The day passed quietly and before he knew it Albus was standing outside Neville's classroom ready to start private lessons that is semi private lessons. Also standing outside the door waiting for the Professor to show was a first year girl. Albus recognized her immediately of course; her silvery white hair was kind of hard to forget.

"Hey you're Izzy right?" Albus asked.

The girl looked at him quizzically. Her green eyes seemed to darken slightly as she thought back. "Have we met?" she asked in a fluid high pitched voice.

"Uh yeah my brother tried to drop a dung bomb on you and I pushed you out of the way," Albus reminded her, "I was covered in the stuff remember?"

"Oh!" she said her green eyes lightening again, "I remember you're… Albus Potter."

He nodded with a small smile, "Yup. Is Neville helping you out too?"

"Sort of," she said, "I wanted to learn some spells to help with this this Rumpert that's taken up residence under my bed. None of the seventh years knew how to get rid of it because it's so rare. Professor Longbottem said he would look up a spell and teach it to me today since he's not allowed in the Slytherin common room."

Albus nodded sympathetically. When he was seven James had "found" a Rumpert and planted it under Albus' bed. He couldn't sleep for weeks until his dad forcibly removed the thing. It made a mess of his room. He was so mad at James that he gave him the silent treatment for a whole week.

"What's Professor Longbottem helping you with?" Izzy asked.

Albus felt his cheeks getting hot. His excuse wasn't so glamorous, "Extra help," he said, "I've got a P in Defense Against the Dark Arts right now."

She nodded silently, and then silence became awkward the door to Neville's classroom creaked open. "Ready to start?" Neville asked both of the Slytherins nodded.

"Alright so I'm going to start with Miss Flynn alright Al?" Neville said. Albus nodded and walked over to sit up on one of the desks to watch.

"The spell I found was Relinquerus," Neville explained. "It should work on more than just Rumperts so I thought you could practice on this." Neville held up a green apple and placed it under a desk.

"I want you to point your wand at it and say Relinquerus, put the accent on the "us" at the end."

"Ok," Izzy chimed. She pointed her wand at the apple and flicked it in a purposeful motion," Relinquerus." There was a bright flash from the end of her wand but the apple remained untouched. A small crease formed between Izzy's eyebrows and she proceeded to try again.

"Al your turn," Neville said, "I want you to practice the spell we worked on today."

"What was that again?" Albus asked.

Neville frowned, "This is why you're flunking," he said.

"Sorry," Albus mumbled.

"The spell was Popetulum," Neville said. He flicked his wrist and silently demonstrated the spell on a jar that was resting on his counter. There was a small popping noise as the jar crumbled into shards. With another flick it was back together again.

"Poptulum," Albus said imitating the gesture his wand made the popping noise this time and a cloud of smoke puffed from the end of it.

"Poptulum," he said again. This time his wand sparked, but the glass remained untouched.

"Popetulum Albus," Neville corrected," There is an e between the "p" and the "t"."

"Popetulum." This time nothing happened at all. Albus paused to glance over at to look at Izzy. She was already having twice the amount of success as he was. The apple that she was aiming at was covered in black soot from being hit with her spell. He let out a loud groan. He had been here for only ten minutes and he already felt like a failure.

"Albus you need to accent the "pe" more you are saying Pope-tu-lum say Po- pet- u-l um," Neville corrected.

Albus furrowed his eyebrows and moved his arm fluidly, "Po-pet-u-lum," he cried. There was a popping sound just like there should be but instead of the glass he was targeting breaking, the three to its right shattered.

"Very good Albus," Neville applauded," Now hit your target."

"Popetulum," Albus said. Again the three to the right broke.

"Watch me," Izzy said unexpectedly. Albus watched as the first year gracefully waved her wand. "Popetulum" The glass shattered. Albus didn't really know how to respond to that. He was just one upped by a first year, more than that, he was one upped by a _girl_ first year.

"Perfect," Neville said with a snort, "That was great Ms. Flynn."

"Thank you," Izzy chimed, "I'm going to go get rid of the Rumpert now kay."

Neville nodded

"I'll see you around Al," she called back as she walked out the door.

"See you," Albus mumbled.

Neville turned to Albus," Well try the spell again, we've got some more work to do before the nights over."

Albus let out a groan, well that's just swell.


	14. Chapter 14 A Black Death

Scorpius pulled at the tie hanging around his neck. It seemed that no matter what he did nothing would make his dress robes seem less stuffy. The tightness of the clothing certainly wasn't making his morning any better, not that anything could make this better. Scorpius walked alone to the McGonagall's office. When he arrived his father was already there waiting for him. His father's hair was greased back the way he did it for special occasions.

"Your mom and grandmother will meet us there," his father choked out. Scorpius didn't reply. What could he say? I'm real sorry that grandpa lost it and now we have to go to his trial that we already know he's going to be found guilty in. That would go over real well with his father.

The two walked through McGonnagall's office to the fireplace. A moment later Scorpius was stepping into the fire as green flames danced around him. Then they were in the ministry walking down the hallway like they owned the place. His father always said the trick to being respected was to demand respect. That is exactly what they did. His dad had made it clear that they were going to act like nothing was wrong, that this was like any visit to the ministry.

They walked over to a large fountain and stood around for a few minutes. Scorpius could feel several pairs of eyes glancing nervously towards him and his father. After about ten minutes of being stared at, his mother and grandmother arrived. They all exchanged token hugs and started heading towards the elevators.

"How is Hogwarts honey?" his mom asked in a quiet voice.

"It's good," Scorpius answered as they stepped into the small elevator. The conversation died there. Nobody was really in a talking mood at the moment. The elevator started to lower now, stopping occasionally to let new people in or old people out. About three floors down the situation got impossibly more awkward. The elevator came to a stop with a slight pinging noise and with a loud creaking sound the door slid open. Stepping into the elevator was two tall official looking men with very serious expressions.

The first face was less familiar then the second. The man's hair was a familiar orange color. Although he had never seen this man before the color was certainly familiar. He might have stood there guessing who it was for a while, but the second man made everything very clear. Between the jet black hair, glasses, and green eyes, seeing the scar wasn't even necessary to identify the man as Harry Potter. After all Scorpius' best friend was the spitting image of the man. Neither of them noticed who they were sharing the elevator with until it was too late and the two doors slid closed.

"Malfoy," the orange haired one exclaimed.

"How very intelligent of you Weasley," his father responded.

Scorpius looked between his father and the other two men. On the bright side, Albus' dad didn't look like he particularly disliked anyone at the moment. On the not so bright side, he was the only one. The orange haired man's eyes flicked down towards Scorpius and back to his dad.

"I see you've cloned yourself," the man sneered.

Before he could continue Harry Potter elbowed him in the gut and cut him off. "How are you doing Scorpius?" Harry Potter said, "Hogwarts treating you well?"

"Yeah I have the highest marks in our year right now," he said in a confident proud voice. "I've even been tutoring Albus a little."

" Yeah I heard," Harry Potter said with a small laugh

"You have the highest marks?" the other man cut in suddenly very interested in the conversation.

"Yeah I beat out this Ravenclaw girl last time the bulletin was posted," Scorpius said. He felt his father's hand on his shoulder- a sign of pride. He wasn't exactly sure what he did though. When he looked back up towards the man he realized that his ears were turning red.

"Isn't your daughter in Ravenclaw Weasley?" his dad asked nonchalantly. Scorpius blushed when he realized what he just did. That man was Rose's dad.

"Aren't you here because your dad attacked Albus last year and murdered one of my coworkers?," shot back. Scorpius' eyes flicked up towards his father slightly worried. The man's face was uncharacteristically colored as he stared icily at .

"Oh look this is our floor," Harry mumbled, "Tell Albus I said hi Scorpius."

"I will," Scorpius replied. The two men exited the elevator hastily after that. A few more floors later it was their stop. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his mom reaching out to hold his dad's hand. He turned his head to try and get a better look at his grandmother but something distracted him. There was a door down another hallway. The edges of the door were glowing. It was almost as if something behind the door was giving off a really bright light and the light was leaking around the edges.

"That's weird," he muttered to himself as he continued to walk with his parents. "Hey dad what else is on this floor?"

His father looked slightly take off guard by the question, but answered it anyway. "The department of mysteries. Why?"

Scorpius shrugged," No reason." Something was bothering him, although he wasn't quite sure what.

The court room that the trial was being held in was relatively full. There were several wizards and witches in the stands that he recognized from different social events. It seemed that everyone wanted to know the fate of the great Lucius Malfoy. The jury on the other hand was relatively small- only 15 people. If he was correct the history books stated that some high profile trials had as much as 150 ministry members participating as judges in them.

In the center of the room was a lone steel chair with a hunched figure in it. Scorpius almost didn't recognize the man from the one time they had met last year. His face was clean shaven and his grey hair had been cut short exposing the back of his neck. He was wearing nice robes, no doubt courtesy of Scorpius' father. He heard a noise escape his grandmother at the sight of the man she once slept next to every night. His dad gave her a gentle squeeze with his free arm. Four seats were vacant in the front row, obviously someone had saved them for the Malfoy family.

The four made their way down each taking a seat. Scorpius sat on the end next to his mother. Within ten minutes of their entrance the trial began.

"Mr. Lucius Malfoy," said a man in the front center of the jury area. The man had long brown hair that was tied neatly back in a ponytail. His face was serious and disinterested as he fingered the large wooden gavel that was sitting in front of him. "You have been brought here on one account of murder, one account of attempted murder, and one account of resisting arrest. Do you deny any of these claims?"

Scorpius watched as his grandfather's wrinkled face folded into a crude smile, "I deny all of them," he said.

The man with the pony tail let out a deep sigh, "Enlighten us on your take of the events then."

"I did not murder anyone to start off," his grandfather declared. "I want to see your proof."

"The body was found buried in the woods," the man said," The date of her death was prior to the last time she was seen. It is quite odd that she disappears around the same time that you were seen at Hogwarts. We also found trace amounts of polyjuice in your blood stream. We are quite good at our arithmetic here at the ministry. It all adds up to your guiltiness."

"Everything you have is circumstantial," Lucius Malfoy said. "I also never attempted to murder that Potter boy."

"We have witnesses to that," the man informed him. Scorpius heard his grandmother whimper. Lucius Malfoy was making a fool of himself and Scorpius had to admit it was painful to watch.

"What witnesses? The Potter boy? He is clearly biased," Lucius Malfoy said.

"We also have five aurors who found you with a wand to Mr. Potter's throat," the man said bored. "Which brings us to the next charge resisting arrest?"

"I was attacked by five very suspicious looking men," Scorpius' grandfather explained, "It was self-defense."

"Aurors announced their presence when they make an arrest. Are we done now?" the man with the ponytail asked.

"Lies!" Lucius Malfoy yelled. Then he let out a laugh. It was so obvious that he was staling the end now that it was sad. He looked over at his father and grandmother again. Draco Malfoy's jaw was clenched tightly. Scorpius could see the muscles in the man's temple moving in anger. He had seen his dad serious at times, usually when the second wizarding war was brought up. He was never like this though, with the anger so blatantly displayed in the lines of his face. His grandmother was the exact opposite of her son. She was on the brink of tears her two long bony hands clutching Scorpius' dad's arm for dear life.

"All in favor of condemning him?" the man asked looking behind his shoulder at his fellow jury members. This was the first time the man showed any emotion as he raised his hand high with the hint of a sarcastic smile on his face. "Defendant is found guilty of all charges. Jury's decision is unanimous so subject will serve maximum sentence." His grandmother was crying now as everyone started to stand up and exit the room.

"Come on Scorpius," Astoria said in a hushed whisper. He nodded and proceeded to follow her out the door. On the way out they stopped several times as 'friends' offered their condolences. Personally if his friend was going through something like this, he would have stayed far away from the trial as their presence was irking him at the moment.

There was one in particular that seemed so much worse than the other 'condolences'. He didn't recognize the woman that walked up to his father by any means. The woman had light brown hair and her face looked smashed together with hard, pug-like features.

"Why hello Draco,"she chimed in a voice that was less than friendly. Then she turned to Narcissa, " and Ms. Black how lovely to see you again."

"My mother's last name is still Malfoy, Pansy," Scorpius' father cut in harshly.

"Really?" Pansy said with a sugary sweet smile, "I would have thought you had opted to change it back if I were you. Anyway I'm very sorry about all this."

Draco's jaw was set like stone as his eyes bored in to her face. "Thank you," Astoria cut in, "Perhaps we will see you around."

"Perhaps," Pansy mumbled before striding out the door. Scorpius tentatively looked up at his father again. He never knew that the man's veins were so prominent in his forehead.

"Let's go," his mom said putting a hand gently on Draco's shoulder. They made it the rest of the way to the exit with their heads held high like a proper prestiged pureblood family. Scorpius kept his eyes on the end of the hall, until that light coming from the department of ministries distracted him again. He found himself wondering what was behind that door. Something was bugging him, something big.

Then it hit him, "Black!" he shouted to no one. Immediately he had three pairs of tired eyes on him.

"What?" his mom asked. Scorpius felt the urge to blush but suppressed it.

"I said Jack," Scorpius covered, "I'm doing a group project for transfigurations with this Ravenclaw kid named Jack. I forgot to do something for it."

"Maybe we should get you back early then?" Astoria offered.

Scorpius nodded eagerly, "Yeah that would be helpful," he told her. The reality was that a second year Ravenclaw named Jack didn't exist. He had a different reason that he wanted to get back. You see a certain line of a certain prophecy said that a legend's son must return to the place of one Black Death. On first look this is a very confusion concept; however, upon further examination one may notice that it really comes down to being well versed in history. Now Scorpius was extremely well versed in it and the answer to this clue had never been more clear.


End file.
